Uwazi

Peri Asso (29) korban penembakan di Dekai, Kabupaten Yahukimo, Papua, meninggal dunia pada Minggu (22/8) dini hari sekitar pukul 02.20 WIT di RS Polri Bhayangkara, Kota Jayapura.

Korban tertembak saat aparat keamanan membubarkan unjuk rasa di Dekai, Senin lalu (16/8). Peri sempat mendapat perawatan di RSUD setempat, sebelum dievakuasi ke Jayapura Jumat (20/8).

Jenazah korban sudah diserahkan ke pihak keluarga di Sentani untuk dimakamkan.

"Saya masih menunggu laporan lengkapnya dari Kabid Dokkes Polda Papua," kata Mathius.

Ia menyatakan berdasar laporan Kapolres Yahukimo, situasi kamtibmas di wilayah itu relatif aman. Meski demikian, Mathius meminta anggotanya untuk bersiaga dan melakukan patroli guna memberikan rasa aman ke masyarakat

Aksi demo yang dilakukan warga di Dekai, 16 Agustus lalu, menuntut aparat membebaskan juru bicara KNPB Viktor Yeimo yang hingga kini masih ditahan di Mako Brimob Kotaraja.

Kepolisian Daerah (Polda) Sumatera Barat memanggil Direktur Lembaga Bantuan Hukum (LBH) Padang Indira Suryani terkait kasus dugaan ujaran kebencian, pada Jumat (13/8). Hal ini diduga berawal dari unggahan LBH Padang di media sosial.

Perwakilan Tim Hukum LBH Padang Dechtree Ranti Putri mengatakan pihaknya menerima surat pemanggilan itu pada 12 Agustus 2021, sebagai saksi atas dugaan tindak pidana ujaran kebencian.

"Iya dipanggil, namun LBH Padang tidak bisa memenuhinya dengan beberapa alasan," katanya kepada CNNIndonesia.com, Jumat (13/8).

Pihaknya menduga, kasus ini erat kaitannya dengan unggahan akun Instagram LBH Padang yang mengkritik penghentian penyelidikan kasus dugaan penyelewengan anggaran Covid-19 di Sumbar.

Pantauan CNNIndonesia.com, pada Selasa (29/6) lalu, LBH Padang mengunggah karikatur mengenai penghentian penyelidikan penyelewengan anggaran Covid-19 dengan dugaan kerugian negara sebesar Rp4,9 miliar.

Diketahui, Polda Sumbar menghentikan penyelidikan kasus karena tak menemukan unsur kerugian negara.

Ranti menyampaikan, tidak dipenuhinya panggilan tersebut karena sejumlah alasan, di antaranya pemanggilan berjarak hanya satu hari dari proses pemeriksaan.

Pemanggilan ini, lanjutnya di luar prosedur dan melanggar hukum sebagaimana ketentuan Pasal 227 ayat (1) KUHAP berbunyi "semua jenis pemberitahuan atau panggilan oleh pihak yang berwenang dalam semua tingkat pemeriksaan kepada terdakwa, saksi atau ahli disampaikan selambat - lambatnya tiga hari sebelum tanggal hadir yang ditentukan, di tempat tinggal mereka atau di tempat kediaman mereka terakhir".

Kemudian pemanggilan dilakukan secara tidak patut, karena dalam proses panggilan petugas mesti bertemu sendiri dan berbicara langsung kepada yang dipanggil sebagaimana ketentuan Pasal 227 ayat 2 KUHAP.

"Dalam Pasal 227 ayat 2 KUHP itu jelas tertulis petugas yang melaksanakan panggilan tersebut harus bertemu sendiri dan berbicara langsung dengan orang yang dipanggil dan membuat catatan bahwa panggilan telah diterima oleh yang bersangkutan dengan membubuhkan tanggal serta tandatangan, baik oleh petugas maupun orang yang dipangil dan apabila yang dipanggil tidak menandatangani maka petugas harus mencatat alasannya," ujar Ranti.

LBH Padang, kata Ranti, telah mengirimkan surat kepada Polda Sumbar C.q Penyidik karena tidak bisa menghadiri panggilan ini, karena kesalahan prosedur formal dan melanggar hukum.

Selain itu, Indira selaku yang dipanggil atas kasus ini juga kebingungan dengan permasalahan pemeriksaan terhadap LBH Padang.

Ia mengaku tidak tahu menahu soal kasus apa yang akan diperiksa oleh Polda Sumbar terhadap LBH Padang.

"Kami bingung dengan surat panggilan saksi dari Polda Sumbar ini. Saat ini kami menunggu informasi dari kepolisian," jelasnya.

Sementara Kabid Humas Polda Sumbar Kombes Pol Stefanus Satake Bayu Setianto mengatakan memang ada pemanggilan terhadap LBH Padang. Namun yang bersangkutan tidak datang.

"Secara tertulis dalam surat pemanggilan itu ketua LBH Padang, namun secara struktur organisasi beliau direktur, suratnya akan diperbaiki," kata Stefanus.

Direktur Lembaga Bantuan Hukum (LBH) Bali Ni Kadek Vany Primaliraing dilaporkan ke Polda Bali atas tuduhan dugaan makar karena memberikan bantuan hukum kepada mahasiswa Papua.

Pelaporan tersebut menjadi tanda tanya karena advokat dianggap ikut melakukan upaya makar disaat menjalankan mandat konstitusi.

Permasalahan itu bermula saat LBH Bali mendampingi aksi damai Aliansi Mahasiswa Papua (AMP) pada 31 Mei 2021.

Pendampingan itu juga didasarkan dengan surat permohonan pendampingan hukum Nomor 09/AMP-KK-BALI/III/2021 tertanggal 27 Mei 2021.

Dengan demikian LBH Bali sedang menjalankan mandat konstitusi yakni Pasal 1 Ayat 3, Pasal 27 Ayat 1, Pasal 28 Ayat 1 dan Pasal 34 Ayat 1 dalam UUD 1945 dan UU Nomor 16 Tahun 2011 tentang Bantuan Hukum.

"Pada poinnya melindungi serta menjamin hak warga negara akan kebutuhan akses terhadap keadilan (access to justice) dan kesamaan di hadapan hukum (equality before the law)," kata Vany kepada Suara.com, Rabu (4/8/2021).

Akan tetapi, Vany justru dilaporkan ke Polda Bali oleh pelapor Rico Ardika Panjaitan pada Senin, 2 Agustus 2021 atas dugaan tindak pidana makar dan dugaan pemufakatan makar.

Vany lantas menjelaskan kalau saat mendampingi klien, advokat dilarang membedakan perlakuan terhadap klien berdasarkan jenis kelamin, agama, politik, keturunan, ras atau latar belakang sosial dan budaya. Itu tertuang dalam Ayat 1 Undang-undang Nomor 18 Tahun 2003 yang mengatur tentang profesi advokat.

Kemudian pada Ayat 2 UU 18/2003 dijelaskan kalau advokat tidak dapat diindetikan dengan kliennya dalam membela perkara klien oleh pihak yang berwenang dan/atau masyarakat.

"Sehingga LBH Bali sedang menjalankan mandat konstitusi dan UU 40 tahun 2008 tentang Penghapusan Diskriminasi Ras dan Etnis," ujarnya.

Lebih jauh, Vany menganggap kalau pelaporan advokat sekaligus aktivitas Hak Asasi Manusia (HAM) merupakan upaya kriminalisasi, sekaligus pelemahan kerja bantuan hukum serta rasisme terhadap teman-teman Papua.

Menurutnya hal tersebut juga menciderai konstitusi dengan melakukan pembatasan hak atas bantuan hukum.

Selain itu, pelaporan itu juga menjadi pertanyaan karena advokat yang tengah menjalankan mandat konstitusional tetapi malah dituduh makar dan menjadikan konstitusional RI sebagai korbannya.

"Bahkan logikanya LBH Bali sedang melaksanakan mandat konstitusi memberikan bantuan hukum, implementasi asas praduga tidak bersalah, asas persamaan di depan hukum, asas legalitas dan ini justru dapat menjadi Pelaporan Palsu sebagaimana di atur dalam Pasal 220 KUHP," tuturnya.

Vany juga menyayangkan aparat kepolisian yang tidak melakukan edukasi terhadap pelapor pada saat melakukan pelaporan. Sebagai tegaknya asas legalitas dan pendalaman pengetahuan konstitusi.

"Mengorbankan hidup orang lain khususnya orang miskin dan kelompok minoritas untuk kepentingan pribadi merupakan hal yang keji."

Pria bernama Persada Bhayangkara Sembiring diduga disiram dengan air keras oleh orang tidak dikenal (OTK). Persatuan Wartawan Indonesia (PWI) Sumatera Utara (Sumut) mengatakan Persada merupakan pemimpin redaksi (pemred) salah satu media lokal di Medan.

"Mengecam tindak kekerasan kembali terjadi terhadap wartawan yang bertugas di lingkungan Kota Medan khususnya, dan Sumatera Utara umumnya," kata Ketua PWI Sumut Hermansjah kepada wartawan, Senin (26/7/2021).

Herman mengatakan peristiwa ini terjadi pada Minggu (25/7) pukul 22.00 WIB. Herman mengatakan pihaknya mendapatkan informasi peristiwa ini terkait pemberitaan tentang perjudian.

"Diduga sering menaikkan berita perjudian, lalu ditelepon, jumpalah di Simpang Selayang. Setelah jumpa, lalu tiba-tiba diduga Pemred Jelajahperkara disiram air keras ke wajahnya," tutur Herman.

Herman mengatakan pihaknya akan membentuk tim untuk mendampingi korban dalam menjalani kasusnya. Herman juga mengingatkan agar wartawan berhati-hati dalam menjalankan tugas.

"Apapun beritanya, wartawan harus mengutamakan keselamatan daripada jiwa jadi taruhan kawan-kawan saat menjalankan tugas di lapangan," ucapnya.

Rekan dari korban, Bonni Manulang, mengatakan dirinya dihubungi Persada usai peristiwa itu terjadi. Bonni kemudian membawa Persada untuk berobat ke RS Adam Malik Medan.

"Untuk kondisi korban setelah wajah disiram air keras, tampak sangat parah, mengerikan di sekitar wajah tersiram air keras, wajah langsung bengkak (tembem) dan menguning, tapi tidak sampai melepuh. Tetapi setelah ditangani tim medis, kondisi fisik sudah semakin baik dan bisa melihat," tuturnya.

Bonni mengatakan Persada saat peristiwa itu sedang menunggu seseorang di lokasi kejadian. Dari keterangan Persada, menurut Bonni, dia disiram dua orang yang menggunakan sepeda motor.

"Tiba-tiba datang dua orang pria mendekat dengan menggunakan sepeda motor. Tanpa berbicara apa-apa, satu orang pria itu turun dari motornya dan langsung menyiramkan sesuatu ke bagian wajahnya yang belakangan diketahui adalah air keras," jelasnya.

Safii Wakabiro Indo rubrik.com Kabupaten Asahan dan juga sebagai Ketua Pimpinan Anak Cabang (PAC) Pemuda Pancasila Kecamatan Sei Kepayang Timur bersama Hamdan Sinaga Wartawan Indo rubrik.com dan juga Sebagai Sekretaris PP mendapat perlakuan yang sangat keji dari Oknum berseragam bersama dengan rekan-rekannya para Preman berkisar pada Pukul 01.00 Wib Malam Sabtu 24/7/21.

Hal tersebut dikatakan Korban Safii dan Hamdan Sinaga pada Wartawan di klinik menteri Udin Jalan Tomat Minggu 25/7/21, yang mana Oknum berseragam dan para Preman yang melakukan penganiayaan datang dengan mengenderai Dua (2) unit Mobil dan Tiga (3) Unit Sepeda motor, yang mana oknum tersebut diketahui berinisial CDR Oknum TNi Al yang bertugas di Kabupaten Batubara.

CDR dengan rekan-rekannya para oknum preman meminta Kartu Tanda Anggota (KTA) dari kedua Wartawan tersebut dan berusaha untuk membakar KTA itu.

Dimana bermula Dua wartawan dan rekan-rekannya yang sedang melaksanakan tugas mengambil Fhoto sebuah Truk Tangki yang berada persis di depan Polres Asahan diduga membawa minyak Ilegal yang akan dibawa ke Kota Tanjungbalai.

Dan kedua Wartawan yang bertugas di Kabupaten Asahan tersebut ditegur oleh oknum-oknum tersebut dengan berkata mengapa kau Fhoto-fhoto itu dan dengan secara Spontan langsung mengejar serta menganiaya Safii dan Hamdan Sinaga.

Ke Dua Wartawan Asahan yang sedang bertugas tersebut dipukuli serta ditendang,dan tidak sampai disitu oknum-oknum tersebut juga melakukan penculikan dengan membawa kedua Wartawan ke dalam mobil.

Untuk selanjutnya Dua (2) Wartawan yang sudah diculik disekap pada sebuah Hotel yang ada di Kisaran,dan disana mereka diperlakukan secara tak manusiawi, setelah puas melakukan penganiayaan tersebut kedua korban dipaksa serta diintimidasi untuk menanda tangani sebuah surat perjanjian yang isinya sudah ada perdamaian antara kedua belah pihak, sekitar pukul 06.00 Wib kedua Korban yang sudah babak belur dilepaskan oknum-oknum tersebut.

Menanggapi hal tersebut Ketua Persatuan Wartawan Republik Indonesia (PWRI) Kota Tanjungbalai Yusman Kumis sangat menyesalkan hal tersebut dan mengutuk keras aksi yang dilakukan oleh Oknum TNI AL tersebut dan juga para Preman suruhan dari CDR.

Untuk itu kita meminta agar persoalan tersebut dapat diusut secara tuntas karena Indonesia adalah Negara Hukum jadi siapapun yang melawan Hukum harus dihukum,apa lagi Wartawan yang sedang melaksanakan tugas yang sudah dilindungi dan diatur dalam UU pokok Pers Nomor 40 Tahun 1999, Ungkap yusman dengan nada geram.

Seorang aktivis mahasiswa Universitas Pattimura Ambon, Risman Soulissa ditangkap polisi. Aktivis Himpunan Mahasiswa Islam (HMI) Cabang Ambon ini ditangkap terkait seruan aksi unjuk rasa mencopot Presiden Joko Widodo, Gubernur Maluku, Murad Ismail dan Wali Kota Ambon yang diunggah di media sosial. Risman dijemput sebuah mobil lalu ditangkap oleh sejumlah Anggota Polresta Pulau Ambon dan Pulau-Pulau Lease di sekitar tempat tinggalnya di kawasan Poka, Kecamatan Teluk Ambon pada Minggu malam (25/7/2021). “Benar. Yang bersangkutan telah ditangkap dan saat ini telah resmi ditahan,” kata Kapolresta Pulau Ambon dan Pulau-Pulau Lease, Kombes Pol Leo Surya Nugraha Simatupang kepada Kompas.com via telepon seluler, Senin (26/7/2021). Ditetapkan tersangka ujaran kebencian Setelah ditangkap, mahasiswa tersebut langsung diperiksa oleh penyidik di kantor Polresta Pulau Ambon. Dia kemudian langsung ditetapkan sebagai tersangka dalam kasus ujaran kebencian.“Saat ini sudah ditetapkan sebagai tersangka. Nanti kalau soal teknisnya silahkan ke Kasat Reskrim saja,” katanya. Unggah seruan aksi di Facebook Kepala Sub Bagian Humas Polresta Pulau Ambon dan Pulau-Pulau Lease, Ipda Isack Leatemia menjelaskan, penangkapan terhadap Risman dilakukan setelah tersangka mengunggah dua gambar berisi seruan aksi unjuk rasa di akun Facebook miliknya pada 21 Juli 2021 lalu. Dalam unggahan itu ada seruan untuk mencopot Presiden Joko Widodo, Gubernur Maluku dan juga Wali Kota Ambon. “Tersangka memposting dua gambar berserta keterangannya yang memuat ujaran kebencian,” katanya saat dihubungi secara terpisah. Isack menerangkan, perbuatan tersangka itu telah menyalahi ketentuan Pasal 45A sebagaimana dimaksud dalam Pasal 45 ayat 3 Undang-undang Nomor 19 Tahun 2016 tentang perubahan kedua atas UU nomor 11 tahun 2008 tentang Informasi dan Transaksi Elektronik dan atau Pasal 14 ayat 2 UU Nomor 1 Tahun 1946 tentang peraturan hukum pidana. “Perbuatan tersangka menyebarkan ujaran kebencian sebagaimana diatur dalam undang-undang,” katanya.

Sekitar 23 mahasiswa Universitas Cenderawasih (Uncen) ditangkap oleh polisi saat menggelar unjuk rasa menolak Otonomi Khusus Papua Jilid II di beberapa lokasi berbeda, Selasa (14/7).

"Berdasarkan jumlah keseluruhan, yang ditangkap ada 23 orang massa mahasiswa yang ditangkap masing-masing dari 3 tempat yang berbeda," kata Direktur LBH Papua, Emmanuel Gobay saat dikonfirmasi, Selasa (14/7).

Gobay menyebut penangkapan juga dibarengi aksi represif aparat kepolisian sehingga mengakibatkan lima mahasiswa terluka. Para mahasiswa yang ditangkap langsung dibawa ke Mapolres Jayapura.

Aksi represif terhadap lima mahasiswa Papua terjadi di kawasan Uncen Bawah, Abepura, dengan jumlah korban 3 mahasiswa. Lalu satu orang lain mengalami kekerasan di Unecn Atas Waena dan yang lainnya di sekitar wilayah Dok 8.

"Alasan penahanan massa aksi mahasiswa dan Pemuda ini dikarenakan mereka tidak membubarkan diri saat diminta bubar sehingga pihak kepolisian mengamankan masa aksi ke Mapolresta Jayapura," jelas dia.

Gobay menyebut pihaknya sudah meminta keterangan dari Polda Papua atas penangkapan 23 mahasiswa Uncen tersebut.

Dikatakan dia bahwa polisi menyatakan tidak ada pelanggaran hukum lain yang dilakukan oleh massa aksi. Penangkapan dilakukan karena massa tak mau bubar saat diminta membubarkan diri.

"10 orang diangkut dari Uncen bawah, 10 orang diangkut dari Uncen atas dan 3 orang diangkut dari Dok 9," tukasnya.

Kabid Humas Polda Papua, Kombes Ahmad Musthofa Kamal mengonfirmasi penangkapan sejumlah mahasiswa Uncen tersebut.

Para mahasiswa itu masih berada di Polres Jayapura. Namun Kamal belum bisa merinci jumlah mahasiswa yang ditangkap. Alasan penangkapan, menurutnya, karena mahasiswa mengabaikan arahan kepolisian.

"Sudah diingatkan untuk tidak keluar kampus (saat unjuk rasa). Dan izin tidak diberikan karena situasi Kota Jayapura zona merah," jelas Kamal.

Sebanyak 50 mahasiswa Papua yang sempat ditangkap aparat kepolisian saat menggelar aksi unjuk rasa menolak pengesahan Revisi Undang-Undang Otonomi Khusus (RUU Otsus) Papua, di depan MPR/DPR, Senayan, Jakarta sudah dibebaskan.

"Sudah diperbolehkan pulang tapi masih menunggu barang-barang [yang disita]," kata pendamping hukum mahasiswa dari PBHI Julius Ibrani kepada CNNIndonesia.com, Kamis (15/7).

Julius mengatakan mahasiswa tersebut ditangkap aparat dengan alasan telah melanggar ketertiban protokol kesehatan di tengah pandemi virus corona (Covid-19).

"Sekitar 50 orang yang ditangkap dan ditahan secara sewenang-wenang saat melakukan aksi," ujarnya.

Secara terpisah, Koalisi Kemanusiaan Papua mengecam keras penggunaan kekerasan yang diduga dilakukan aparat saat menangkap massa unjuk rasa.

Koalisi Kemanusiaan Papua merupakan kemitraan sukarela yang terdiri dari sejumlah organisasi seperti Amnesty International Indonesia, Imparsial, Biro Papua PGI, dan lain-lain.

"Kami memandang tindakan tersebut melanggar hak atas kebebasan berekspresi serta hak atas kebebasan berkumpul warga yang sedang menyampaikan aspirasi mereka secara damai," kata Koalisi Kemanusiaan Papua melalui keterangan tertulis.

Koalisi menyatakan unjuk rasa yang dilakukan mahasiswa merupakan aksi damai sebagai respon atas kebijakan pemerintah. Menurut mereka, seharusnya negara menjamin keamanan para demonstran.

Hak atas kebebasan berekspresi dan berkumpul, kata mereka, seharusnya dijamin melalui UU No. 12 Tahun 2005 tentang Pengesahan Kovenan Internasional tentang Hak-hak Sipil dan Politik.

Sementara tindakan aparat dinilai melanggar Pasal 11 ayat (1) huruf b dan Pasal 13 ayat (1) huruf a Peraturan Kapolri No. 8 Tahun 2009 yang menegaskan larangan melakukan intimidasi, ancaman dan siksaan fisik.

Sebelumnya, salah seorang mahasiswa yang turut mengikuti aksi, Ambrosisus Mulait mengatakan puluhan mahasiswa Papua yang menggelar aksi di MPR/DPR ditangkap polisi.

Ia mengatakan aparat mengamankan mahasiswa dengan alasan melanggar protokol kesehatan. Ambrosius bersama massa aksi lainnya sudah berkumpul di Senayan sejak pagi.

CNNIndonesia.com sudah menghubungi Kabid Humas Polda Metro Jaya Kombes Yusri Yunus dan Direktur Reskrimum Polda Metro Jaya Kombes Tubagus Ade Hidayat terkait penangkapan ini, namun belum mendapat jawaban.

Aksi mengeluarkan paksa alat berat yang ada di lokasi galian C tepat di area Bendung Wae Cebong yang dilakukan warga Desa Compang Longgo, Kecamatan Komodo, Kabupaten Manggarai Barat, Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) berbuntut panjang.

Dua warga Compang Longgo yang ikut dalam aksi yang menyuarakan kekhawatiran munculnya dampak lingkungan seiring aktivitas galian C itu malah dilaporkan ke Polres Manggarai Barat.

Dua warga tersebut adalah Leonardus Suhardiwan dan Heronimus Taji. Keduanya akan diperiksa oleh Satreskrim Polres Manggarai Barat pada Kamis (8/7/2021) besok.

Jajaran Satreskrim Polres Manggarai Barat menerbitkan surat Undangan Klarifikasi dengan Nomor B/1336/VII/2021.

Rujukan yang dipakai polisi adalah a) Pasal 184 Ayat (1) huruf a Undang-Undang No.8 Tahun 1981 tentang KHUAP, b) Undang-undang Nomor 2 tahun 2002, tentang Kepolisian Negara Republik Indonesia, c) Undang-Undang Nomor 3 Tahun 2020 Tentang Perubahan Atas Undang-undang Nomor 4 Tahun 2009 Tentang Pertambangan Mineral dan Batubara.

Dalam undangan tertuang Unit Tipidter Satuan Reskrim Polres Manggarai Barat sedang melakukan penyidikan terhadap dugaan Tindakan Pidana “Menghalang-halangi kegiatan Pertambangan Galian C di Wilayah Desa Compang Longgo yang memiliki ijin”.

Tokoh pemuda setempat, Leonardus Suhardiwan menyayangkan kriminalisasi aksi yang merupakan bentuk keprihatinan terhadap lingkungan. Hal ini dinilai kian menegaskan arogansi pengusaha galian C dalam merespon aksi keprihatinan warga. Sebelumnya, warga juga beberapa kali mengupayakan mediasi dengan pengusaha galian C milik Kelompok Handel Berseri itu. Namun selalu berakhir buntu.

“Dan tiba-tiba mereka (pengusaha galian C) malah membuat laporan ke polisi. Ini yang kita sayangkan, berhadapan dengan masyarakat tapi caranya seperti ini,” kata Leo sapaannya saat ditemui Baranewsaceh.com di kediamannya pada Rabu (7/7) malam.

Sebelumnya, penolakan dilakukan warga dengan cara mediasi. Tak sampai di situ, warga juga berkirim surat penolakan galian C ini terhadap pemerintah kabupaten, provinsi dan pusat yang ditanda tangan ratusan warga Compang Longgo.

“Itu aksi spontanitas warga. Karna dua minggu terakhir ini tidak ada aktivitas disana (seputar lokasi Bendung Wae Cebong). Tiba-tiba kemarin pagi, muncul eksa dan mobil lagi”, ungkap Leo.

Kalau begini ceritanya, besok kami siap hadir memenuhi panggilan itu, tutup Leo dengan nada santai.

Diberitakan sebelumnya, Puluhan warga Desa Compang Longgo Kecamatan Komodo, Kabupaten Manggarai Barat, Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), mengeluarkan paksa alat berat yang ada di lokasi galian C tepat disamping area Bendung Wae Cebong. Aksi warga yang sempat memanas ini merupakan bentuk penolakan warga terhadap penambangan tersebut.

Warga menilai, dampak dari penambangan di lokasi tersebut akan merusak lingkungan dan mengganggu aliran air yang masuk ke Bendung Wae Cebong berakibat fatal pada lahan pertanian milik warga di persawahan Walang. Pasalnya, sebagai besar merupakan petani yang menjadi mata pencarian warga.

Kapolres Kampar AKBP M Kholid dilaporkan ke Divisi Propam Polri terkait dugaan kriminalisasi petani sawit yang tergabung dalam Koperasi Petani Sawit Mandiri (Kopsa M) dalam perkara sengketa lahan dengan PTPN V. Pelaporan dilakukan Setara Institute.

"Sejak 2017 petani melalui Ketua Kopsa M Pak Antony Hamzah melakukan perlawanan melaporkan ke Bareskrim dan KPK, sejak itu kriminalisasi terjadi terhadap Pak Antony, dan itu dibiarkan oleh Polres Kampar," kata Disna Riantina, Pengacara Publik, Koordinator Tim Advokasi Keadilan Agraria-Setara Institute, di Jakarta, seperti dilansir dari ANTARA.

Antony Hamzah adalah Ketua Kopsa M yang sejak 2017 melakukan upaya-upaya hukum membela hak 979 anggota koperasi atas pengelolaan lahan perkebunan sawit yang dikerjasamakan dengan PTPN V, di Desa Pangkalan Baru, Siak Hulu, Kabupaten Kampar, Riau.

Sebuah media massa di Pekanbaru Riau, Kamis (10/6) menuliskan berita Ketua Kopsa M Antony Hamzah ditetapkan sebagai tersangka dalam perkara sengketa tanah dengan PTPN V.

Namun, ketika dikonfirmasi ke Polres Kampar, berita tersebut dinyatakan sebagai kabar bohong (hoaks). Hanya saja, Polres Kampar dalam hal ini Kapolres dan penyidik Satreskrim Polres Kampar tidak menganulir berita yang beredar tersebut atau tetap membiarkan berita tersebar tanpa ada penyataan resmi polisi yang menyatakan berita tersebut kabar bohong.

"Tindakan-tindakan jajaran Polres Kampar bukan hanya bertentangan dengan peraturan perundang-undangan, tetapi mencoreng citra Polri dan menjadi ukuran keseriusan Polri memberantas mafia tanah," kata Disna.

Disna mengatakan Antony bersama petani sawit sedang memperjuangkan hak-haknya melalui jalur hukum, dan saat ini mendapat ancaman kriminalisasi melalui skenario peristiwa hukum yang melibatkan PTPN V, PT Langgam Harmuni, akibat peristiwa tindak pidana perusakan yang dilakukan oleh sekelompok preman di lahan milik anggota Kopsa M, sehingga saat ini Ketua Kopsa M menghadapi ancaman menjadi tersangka.

Atas tindakan perusakan di lahan saat ini menjadi objek pelaporan ke Bareskrim Polri dan Satgas Mafia Tanah Polri, jajaran Polres Kampar sejak Januari 2021 terus melakukan pemeriksaan terhadap sejumlah petani dengan cara-cara yang tidak prosedural, disertai tekanan dan ancaman, katanya lagi.

Menurut dia, Polres Kampar menutup mata atas ketidakjelasan pelaporan yang tidak memiliki 'legal standing', laporan polisi Nomor LP/332/X/2020/Riau Res Kampar tertanggal 16 Oktober 2020 adalah persekongkolan pihak-pihak untuk melemahkan dan membungkam petani Kopsa M guna menutupi penyerobotan lahan dan hilangnya kebun-kebun petani serta dugaan tindakan korupsi di PTPN V.

"Perilaku jajaran Polres Kampar yang secara insinuatif dan menyudutkan Kopsa M melalui media-media massa termasuk mendramatisir peristiwa perusakan secara hiperbolik adalah tindakan tidak profesional dan menggambarkan obsesi mengkriminalisasi Ketua Kopsa M tanpa dasar," kata Disna.

Aliansi Keadilan Agraria-Setara Institute dan Kopsa M melaporkan dugaan korupsi di PTPN V yang menyebabkan kebun gagal dan 979 petani tidak memiliki lahan.

Selain laporan dugaan korupsi ke Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) pada 25 Mei 2021, aliansi juga melaporkan dugaan tindak pidana penyerobotan lahan ke Bareskrim Polri pada 27 Mei 2021. Kopsa M juga telah melaporkan peristiwa perampasan hak ini kepada Presiden Joko Widodo pada 23 Februari 2021.

Antony Hamzah yang juga Dosen Universitas Riau saat ditemui di Kantor Setara Institute, di Jakarta, mengatakan pada tahun 2003 Kopsa dan PTPN V membuat perjanjian kerja sama pembangunan kebun sawit pola Kredit Koperasi Primer Anggota (KKPA) untuk anggota koperasi yang direncanakan 2.000 hektare. Nota kesepahaman waktu itu ditandatangani oleh Kopsa M dan Mardjan Ustha selaku Direktur SDM PTPN V.

Perkebunan dibangun dengan memakai pinjaman dari bank dengan PTPN V sebagai avalis. Nominal pinjaman saat itu Rp115 miliar.

Pada tahun 2017, saat Antony dipilih menjadi Ketua Kopsa M, meminta kejelasan luas lahan perkebunan saat ini yang telah dihibahkan petani seluas 4.000 hektare.

"Dari hasil penelusuran dan pengukuran luas lahan menyusut menjadi 1.400 hektare," kata Antony.

Dari 1.400 hektare tersebut, lanjut Antony, hanya 300 hektare lahan yang bisa dipanen, sisanya gagal, satu hektare hanya bisa panen kurang dari satu ton. Petani hanya mendapatkan hasil Rp50 ribu per bulan dalam hasil panen.

Di bawah kepemimpinan Antony, Kopsa M menolak menandatangani surat pengakuan utang, karena belum jelas hak petani atas lahan perkebunan.

Kopsa M juga memiliki bukti ada lahan hibah petani yang diperjualbelikan oleh oknum di PTPN V.

"Yang kami perjuangkan, lahan petani yang dicaplok ini, utang tumbuh lahan hilang," kata Antony.

Direktur Lembaga Bantuan Hukum (LBH) Semarang, Eti Oktaviani menceritakan, proses nonton bareng (nobar) film ‘The End Game’ sempat mengalami gangguan dari sejumlah pihak yang mengaku ‘intel’ sehingga harus dibubarkan. Kejadian ini, menurutnya, terjadi saat LBH Semarang bersama Gerakan Rakyat Menggugat (Geram) melakukan kegiatan nobar film ‘The End Game’ pekan lalu. “Memang saat itu pada saat pelaksanaan ada distraksi-distraksi ya, yang itu berasal dari intel. Karena yang bersangkutan mengaku intel, kemudian memaksa agar penayangan atau diskusi untuk review film End game ini tidak dilaksanakan saat itu,” kata Eti dalam konferensi virtual, Minggu (13/6/2021). Eti menjelaskan, protokol kesehatan Covid-19 menjadi isu utama untuk membubarkan kegiatan nobar tersebut. Karena besarnya pemaksaan agar kegiatan nobar dibubarkan, Eti mengatakan, akhirnya pihak LBH Semarang pun membubarkan kegiatan tersebut. “Dengan proses yang cukup panjang dan kemudian ada pemaksaan-pemaksaan oleh aparat sehingga sekitar 15 atau 10 menit sebelum film itu selesai, akhirnya dengan sangat terpaksa kami memberhentikan, karena sudah cukup panas situasinya saat itu,” ucap dia. Padahal, apabila aparat mengkhawatirkan penerapan protokol kesehatan, Eti menyebut, seharusnya mereka tidak perlu sampai membubarkan kegiatan nobar. Menurut Eti, pihak aparat penegak hukum dapat memantau dan memastikan protokol kesehatan Covid-19 bisa terlaksana “Nah kemudian di sini seharusnya menjadi satu hal yang cukup sangat terlihat atau terpampang nyata ya bahwa memang ada hal yang dicapai itu bukan hanya sebatas menghindari penyebaran Covid-19 tetapi ada hal lain yang memang agar diskusi atau pemutaran film ini tidak bisa terlaksana saat itu,” ucap dia. Eti pun menegaskan, pihaknya berkomitmen untuk melakukan nobar film ‘The End Game’ 10 kali setelah sempat dibubarkan aparat. Menurut dia, banyak mahasiswa dan organisasi non-pemerintah yang mengikuti kegiatan nobar tersebut. “Dengan adanya pembubaran itu, kawan-kawan merespons dengan satu kali proses nobar dibubarkan maka kami berkomitmen untuk menyelenggarakan 10 kali lagi, apa, layar atau menancapkan layar nobar film End Game,” ungkapnya. Diketahui, tidak lolosnya 75 pegawai KPK dari Tes Wawasan Kebangsaan (TWK) yang merupakan alih status kepegawaian menjadi aparatur sipil negara (ASN) menjadi polemik di masyarakat. Sebagai bentuk perlawanan dan upaya menyelamatkan KPK, WatchDoc merilis film dokumenter berjudul The End Game. Film dokumenter ini bercerita soal kesaksian para pegawai KPK yang dinyatakan tak lulus TWK. Sejak dirilis, kedua trailer film ini telah ditonton puluhan ribu orang di YouTube. Trailer pertama menceritakan kesaksian sejumlah pegawai yang dinyatakan tak lulus wawasan kebangsaan. Mereka yang tak lulus berasal dari sejumlah kelompok dan latar belakang agama yang berbeda. Sementara, trailler film kedua menceritakan kesaksian 16 penyidik dan penyelidik, terkait sejumlah kasus yang mereka tangani di KPK. Mereka antara lain, Novel Baswedan, Kasatgas Penyelidik KPK Harun Al Rasyid, Ketua Wadah Pegawai KPK Yudi Purnomo, dan sejumlah nama lain.

Kontributor TV One Ilham Zulfikar diintimadasi dan mendapat ancaman oleh oknum humas PT.Brahmakerta Adwira selaku pelaksana proyek pembangunan jembatan lintas nasional Idi Rayeuk, Aceh Timur, Aceh, Rabu (23/06).

Saat itu, Ilham bersama wartawan monologis.id Ihsan dan Koordinator LSM LAKI Aceh Timur Saiful Anwar tengah mewawancari warga Desa Keude Blang, Idi Rayeuk terkait badan sungai akibat proyek tersebut. Tiba-tiba didatangi seorang pria.

Oknum yang kerap disapa Tekong itu lalu menyanyakan identitas wartawan sambil marah-marah. Lalu dia mencoba menendang Ilham sebanyak dua kali, namun Ilham berhasil mengelak.

“Sambil marah-marah dia mengayunkan kaki sebanyak dua kali namun tidak mengenai karena saya mengelak sambil merekam kejadian itu,” kata Ilham.

Usai melakukan hal itu, Tekong meninggalkan lokasi sambil menghina dengan memaki-maki wartawan.

Sementara itu, Koordinator Taslim Wilayah PT. Brahmakerta Adwira sebagai rekanan pelaksana pemenang tender duplikasi Jembatan Idi Rayeuk dari Kementerian PUPR melalui Balai Pelaksana Jalan Nasional (BPJN) Sumatera 1 menjelaskan secara teknis jumlah item kegiatan yang sedang mereka lakukan.

Taslim juga menyebutkan bahwa pekerjaan mereka sebenarnya sudah sesuai spesifikasi.

“Jika anda ingin melihat lebih rinci, kita ada gambar,” tegas.

Terkait permintaan RAB dan spesifikasi yang diminta LSM LAKI Aceh Timur, tidak bisa ditawarkan jika tidak kepada auditor eksternal BPK RI.

Pihak LAKI Aceh Timur sendiri merasa tidak puas atas penjelasan dari pihak rekanan.

"Sebenarnya perusahaan telah mencoba untuk mengungkapkan informasi yang menjadi hak publik dalam melaksanakan proyek Pemerintah dan ini bertentangan dengan Undang-Undang No.14 tahun 2008 tentang informasi publik karena proyek jembatan tersebut akan digunakan oleh masyarakat sebagai pengguna jalan," kata Koordinator LSM LAKI Aceh Timur Saiful Anwar.

Tindakan tegas pembubaran aksi demo mahasiswa Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta (UMS), dilakukan gabungan Polisi, TNI dan Satpol PP Sukoharjo, Rabu (16/6/2021) sore.

Pembubaran dilakukan sewaktu-waktu massa peserta aksi keluar dari kampus UMS di Pabelan, Kartasura, menuju titik aksi di pertigaan Jl Ahmad Yani, Pabelan, Kartasura. Jarak kampus dengan titik aksi sekitar 200 meter.

Belum sempat menggelar orasi, massa langsung dihalau ratusan petugas gabungan untuk diminta kembali ke dalam kampus. Pembubaran dilakukan untuk mencegah terjadinya serta mengantisipasi kemacetan arus lalu lintas yang akan ditimbulkan.

Kapolres Sukoharjo AKBP Bambang Yugo Pamungkas yang turun langsung memimpin dilapangan bersama Dandim 0726/Sukoharjo Letkol Inf Agus Adhy Darmawan mengatakan, tindakan tegas mencegah melonjaknya penyebaran Covid-19 di Kota Makmur yang oleh.

"Kemarin kami rapat luar biasa di Pemkab bersama jajaran instansi terkait lainnya. Bahwa melihat situasi Solo Raya saat ini, angka kasus Covid-19 meningkat. Termasuk Sukoharjo juga meningkat dengan adanya (Covid-19) varian baru,".

Dengan adanya peningkatan kasus corona, maka seluruh jajaran yang terlibat dalam penanganan Covid-19 harus waspada terhadap segala kegiatan masyarakat untuk menurunkan angka penyebaran virus.

"Seperti kegiatan (aksi demo) ini, melibatkan orang dari luar daerah. Maka harus diingatkan untuk tidak berkumpul. Kami akan memulai dengan himbauan, jika masih membandel akan diberikan sanksi. Kami angkut untuk selanjutnya diberi sanksi," tegas Kapolres.

Pantauan hariankota.com dilapangan, aksi demo dilakukan oleh puluhan mahasiswa, mendesak Presiden Joko Widodo (Jokowi) mengeluarkan Perppu UU No.9 Tahun 2019.

Selain itu, menuntut dikembalikannya marwah dan independensi Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK. Cabut SK Pimpinan KPK No. 652 Tahun 2021, dan demo massa aksi juga menuntut Ketua Umum KPK Firli Bahuri diberhentikan.

Puluhan mahasiswa perwakilan Badan Eksekutif Mahasiswa (BEM) Universitas se Eks Karisidenan Surakarta turun ke jalan di Kartasura. Para mahasiswa yang mengatasnamakan “Aliansi Soloraya Menggugat” menuntut Ketua KPK cabut SK Pimpinan KPK Nomor 652 Tahun 2021.

Aparat Kepolisian sebelum aksi dimulai sudah melakukan penyekatan dan menghalau peserta aksi disejumlah titik masuk Kartasura. Meski sudah dihalau, massa dari sejumlah BEM universitas ini tetap berdatangan. Titik kumpul yang sedianya di lapangan Ngabeyan Kartasura lalu menuju Tugu Kartasura, berubah di halaman sebuah ruko di Jalan Slamet Riyadi Kartasura, atau sekitar 1 km dari lokasi sebelumnya.

“Kami hanya ingin menyerukan save KPK, selamatkan KPK, pecat Filry dan cabut UU nomor 19 tahun 2019,” ungkap Widi Adi Nugroho selaku Koordinator umum dari UMS dalam orasinya, Rabu (30/6).

Dalam aksi itu, setidaknya 50 an mahasiswa dari BEM UMS, UNS, Uniba, Unisri dan Universitas Raden Mas Said (IAIN) turun ke jalan. Dengan mengenakan almamater masing tampak mengusung keranda bertuliskan RIP KPK.

Setidaknya, ada lima tuntutan yang dibacakan, yakni mendesak Ketua KPK Firli Bahuri untuk mencabut SK Pimpinan KPK Nomor 652 Tahun 2021, Mendesak Presiden RI untuk mengganti ketua KPK Firli Bahuri, Menuntut DPR untuk mencabut UU No. 19 tahun 2019 tentang KPK, Menuntut KPK untuk segera menyelesaikan kasus korupsi yang ada di Indonesia. Dan mengajak kepada seluruh elemen masyarakat untuk mengawal dan melawan pelemahan tindak pidana korupsi.

Aksi para mahasiswa tersebut mendapat pengawalan ketat dari Polres Sukoharjo yang di backup Polresta Surakarta dan Polres Karanganyar, dibawah kendali Kapolres Sukoharjo AKBP Wahyu Nugroho didampingi Dandim 0726/Sukoharjo Letkol Inf Agus Adhy Darmawan.

“Tidak diperkenankan ada kegiatan berkumpul jadi wajib dibubarkan. Kami minta mahasiswa pulang kembali kerumah masing-masing,” ungkap KBO Polres Sukoharjo Kompol Agus Pamungkas, mewakili Kapolres Sukoharjo, AKBP Wahyu Nugroho.

Selang 30 menit dibubarkan, mendadak ada massa susulan dari HMI dengan membawa bendera dan berorasi di seberang jalan. Aparat pun dengan sigap membubarkan mereka dan menghalau masuk ke dalam kampung untuk diminta pulang ke rumah masing-masing juga.

“Mengingat situasi Sukoharjo tidak aman, kita tidak akan menoleransi apapun kegiatan yang menimbulkan potensi kerumunan,” tegasnya.

Kapolres Jayapura Kota Kombes Pol Gustav Urbinas memastikan melarang ada demonstrasi di masa pandemi covid-19.

Larangan ini mengugurkan wacana Koalisi Rakyat Papua untuk menduduki kantor Gubernur Papua menuntut Sekda Papua Dance Flassy meletakkan jabatannya.

"Kami sudah menerima surat ijin keramaian dari pihak Koalisi Rakyat Papua, namun kami menolak ijin tersebut," kata Urbinas kepada Tribun-Papua.com, Sabtu (26/6/2021) melalui gawainya.

Dikatakan, pihaknya telah mengeluarkan Surat Tanda Terima Pemberitahuan (STTP), dan pihaknya sudah membalasnya.

"Kami sudah keluarkan STTP dengan penjelasan tidak merekomendasikan aksi unjuk rasa tersebut," ujarnya.

Ia menegaskan akan membubarkan secara paksa apabila tetap melakukan aksi tersebut.

"Sudah jelas, ada surat pemberitahuan penolakan aksi, apabila memaksakan diri, kami bubarkan," tegasnya.

Kata dia, perintah pembubaran apabila ada titik kumpul masa sudah disampaikan di Polsek Jajaran.

"Kami akan bubarkan," tegas Gustav kembali.

Untuk personil Polresta Jayapura Kota nantinya akan diperkuatan dari Polda dan Kodam XVII/Cenderawasih.

Rektorat Universitas Indonesia (UI) memanggil pengurus Badan Eksekutif Mahasiswa (BEM) UI terkait postingan "Jokowi: The King of Lip Service" di Instagram, @bem_official, Sabtu (26/6). Dalam surat yang ditandatangani Direktur Kemahasiswaan, Tito Latif Indra, terdapat 10 mahasiswa yang dipanggil pihak rektoriat pada hari Minggu ini. Kepala Biro Humas dan Keterbukaan Informasi (KIP) UI, Amelita Lusia membenarkan adanya pemanggilan tersebut. "Ya, betul," ujar Amelita kepada Kompas.com, Minggu sore.

Amelita menyebutkan, pemanggilan tersebut sebagai langkah urgen akibat permasalahan yang timbul sehari setelah postingan BEM UI mulai ramai dibicarakan. Amelita menegaskan, pemanggilan itu merupakan bagian dari langkah pembinaan. "Pemanggilan ini adalah bagian dari proses pembinaan kemahasiswaan yang ada di UI," ujar dia. BEM UI mempublikasikan postingan berjudul Jokowi:The King of Lip Service di akun media sosialnya. Dalam postingan tersebut, BEM UI mengkritik Presiden Joko Widodo yang kerap kali mengobral janji.

Postingan itu juga menyindir sejumlah janji dan keputusan Jokowi, mulai dari rindu didemo, revisi UU ITE, penguatan KPK, dan rentetan janji lainnya. Pihak kampus menilai, postingan BEM UI tersebut kurang tepat. Amelita menyebut postingan tersebut telah melanggar beberapa peraturan yang ada. "Hal yang disampaikan BEM UI dalam postingan meme bergambar Presiden Republik Indonesia yang merupakan simbol negara, mengenakan mahkota dan diberi teks Jokowi: The King of Lip Service, bukanlah cara menyampaikan pendapat yang sesuai aturan yang tepat, karena melanggar beberapa peraturan yang ada," ujar Amelita. Amelita menegaskan, kebebasan menyampaikan pendapat dan aspirasi pada dasarnya dilindungi undang-Undang (UU). Akan tetapi, penyampaian aspirasi tersebut seharusnya sesuai aturan yang ada.

"Perlu kami sampaikan bahwa kebebasan menyampaikan pendapat dan aspirasi memang dilindungi undang-Undang. Meskipun demikian dalam menyampaikan pendapat, seyogyanya harus menaati dan sesuai koridor hukum yang berlaku," ujar dia.

The closing of garment factories without informing the workers, retrenchment of workers and non-payment of wages on time are often causes of dissatisfaction among the workers in the readymade garment industry. In many factories, workers are still deprived of the right to form trade unions.

Workers and employees of Style Craft Garment Factory in Laxmipur area under Gazipur City have been on strike and protest since 6 July 2021, demanding payment of arrears of three years’ salary and allowances. The factory authority announced multiple dates for the payment of workers and employees, but did not pay. Due to this, workers and employees gathered at the factory gate on 18 July and went on strike and protested. As a result, the road in front of the factory was blocked. The protesting workers were outraged as the factory authorities did not take any initiative to resolve the issue and when they marched towards Chandina intersection to block the Dhaka-Mymensingh and Dhaka-Tangail highways, the police baton charged them and fired tear gas shells and sound grenades. Six people were injured in the incident.

The closing of garment factories without informing the workers, retrenchment of workers and non-payment of wages on time are often causes of dissatisfaction among the workers in the readymade garment industry. In many factories, workers are still deprived of the right to form trade unions. On 14 July 2021, workers of Lakhsma Innerwear Ltd. in Shreepur Municipal area under Gazipur District blocked the road demanding arrears of wages. At that time, some unidentified miscreants attacked the women workers with sticks and chased the workers, trying to make them lift the blockade. Eight workers, including women, were injured in the attack. The injured workers received treatment at different hospitals.

Akhtaruzzaman, Bogura District correspondent of the daily Banijya Protidin, was picked up from his home by members of the Detective Branch (DB) of Police late at night on 17 July 2021, for publishing news about corruption in the distribution of allowances to employees working on a project in the family planning department in Bogura. At that time the family planning officer Dr. Samir Hossain Mishu and his Office Assistant Shamima Akhter were with the DB Police. Twenty hours after Akhtaruzzaman’s arrest, Shamima Akhter filed a case against him under the Digital Security Act, 2018 with Bogura Sadar Police Station.

On 8 February 2021, Dr. Tasneem Siddiqui, a Professor of Dhaka University and Chairperson of the Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (RMMRU), an organisation working with migrant workers and expatriates, gave an interview in the daily Prothom Alo entitled “Remittance flow and expatriates do not match reality”. She was summoned before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Finance on 23 September to explain her comments in the interview. In addition, due to the pressure on the media, various incidents and occurrences are not published there, but they have been published on social media. Thus, the government and ruling party leaders and activists have now brought the social media under extensive surveillance.

About the Human Rights Defenders: Mr. Ba Singh Hassa is a resident of Dadgama village in Khunti block of Khunti district. An activist with Adivasi Adhikar Manch – a civil society group that protects the land, water and forest rights of indigenous groups, Mr. Hassa has organised and participated in numerous peaceful movements, demonstrations and meetings in Khunti and other places in the past decade, including in the Pathalgadi movement in 2018-19, and ongoing protests against the new farm laws. He is well-educated and offers advice and support to innocent villagers falsely accused of being Maoists.

Details of the incident: On July 14, 2021, Khunti Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) Mr. Sayyed Riyaj Ahemed issued a notice under Section 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (which allows an Executive Magistrate to show cause any person likely to disturb peace or disturb the public tranquillity). It mentioned the names of 25 people, including Mr. Ba Singh Hassa and his brothers/ cousins Mr. Bahadur Hassa, Mr. Kinu Hassa and Mr. Jugal Munda, who were likely to disturb peace and security in the area according to information with the SDO. All 25 persons were asked to report to the SDO court in Khunti on July 22, 2021 and show cause why they should not be asked to furnish a bond of Rs 50,000 and two supporting witnesses. Mr. Bahadur Hassa received a call from the Khunti Police Station on July 17, 2021, when he was informed about the notice. He collected the notice from the police station the next day, and reported to the SDO court with Mr. Ba Singh Hassa and other brothers/ cousins on July 22, 2021, and two more subsequent hearings. On September 24, 2021, the day of the fourth hearing, Mr. Ba Singh Hassa, Mr. Kinu Hassa, Mr. Jugal Munda and Mr. Bahadur Hassa reached the court at around 10 AM, whereas their turn came up at 2.30 PM. When they presented themselves before SDO Mr. Ahemed, he asked them not to leave the court premises without his permission. He then called someone from his phone and said that three absconding accused in the murder case (FIR no 88/2018) were sitting in front of him. At around 4.30 PM, Khunti PS Officer in Charge Mr. B Thakur reached the court in civil clothes with three other policemen in uniform. They arrested Mr. Ba Singh Hassa, Mr. Kinu Hassa and Mr. Jugal Munda from inside the court premises. The HRD and his relatives were not informed about why they were arrested, nor shown any arrest warrant or allowed access to a lawyer. All provisions of the DK Basu guidelines were violated. Mr. Hassa and others were taken to the Khunti Police Station in a police vehicle and detained there overnight. They were taken for medical examination at 2 PM, produced in court at around 4.30 PM on September 25, 2021, and remanded to Khunti jail. We firmly believe that the HRD and his relatives were ensnared by the SDO and arrested by police in a case that was over three years old in violation of due procedures. The SDO referred to them as absconding even though Mr. Ba Singh Hassa had communicated and met several police and government officials in his capacity as an activist and participated in many public programmes in Khunti and Ranchi in the intervening period. He was also detained and interrogated by police in Khunti in April 2019. Whereas, the notice against the HRD and his arrest coincided with his active involvement in peaceful meetings and protests against the new farm laws in Khunti. This indicates that the action against Mr. Hassa and others is an act of political vendetta, and aimed at muzzling the freedom of speech, expression and assembly, which are guaranteed under national and international legal frameworks.

The Observatory has been informed about the arbitrary detention and ongoing judicial harassment of Ms. Benja Apan, a student and pro-democracy activist with the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration (UFTD) [1], on lèse-majesté charges in relation with the August 10, 2021 pro-democracy protest.

On October 7, 2021, Benja Apan was arrested at the Lumpini Police Station, Bangkok, where she had gone to hear a charge of violating the Emergency Decree for participating in a pro-democracy protest on September 3, 2021, at Bangkok’s Ratchaprasong intersection. The police arrested Ms. Benja on the basis of another outstanding arrest warrant issued against her under Article 112 of the Thai Criminal Code (“lèse-majesté”) [2], the Emergency Decree [3], and the Communicable Diseases Act. These charges stem from Ms. Benja’s participation in a pro-democracy protest on August 10, 2021, in front of the Sino-Thai Tower building on Asoke Road in Bangkok, during which she gave a speech that criticized the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and called for the reform of the Thai monarchy. Later on October 7, police took Ms. Benja to Bangkok’s Thong Lo Police station where she was detained overnight after being denied bail.

On October 8, 2021, Benja Apan appeared before the Bangkok South Criminal Court, which denied her bail arguing that the offenses of which she is accused carry a heavy penalty and that she previously committed the same offenses. Benja Apan was then taken to the Central Women’s Correctional Institution in Bangkok, where she was still being detained at the time of publication of this Urgent Appeal. Ms. Benja is currently facing a total of six charges under Article 112 of the Criminal Code and she could face up to 90 years in prison, if tried and found guilty on all counts.

The Observatory notes with concern that between November 24, 2020, and October 8, 2021, 150 people, including many human rights defenders, were charged under Article 112 of the Thai Criminal Code. Some of them - Anon Nampa, Parit Chiwarak, Panupong Chadnok, and Jatuphat Boonpattararaksa - remain detained pending trial.

The Observatory condemns the arbitrary detention and judicial harassment of Benja Apan, Anon Nampa, Parit Chiwarak, Panupong Chadnok and Jatuphat Boonpattararaksa,which seem to be only aimed at punishing them for their legitimate human rights activities and the exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly.

The Observatory calls on the Thai authorities to immediately and unconditionally release the five human rights defenders and to put an end to the judicial harassment against them and all other human rights defenders in the country.

Chiang Mai University student and performance artist Withaya Khlangnin is facing another royal defamation charge for staging a performance in front of the university on 1 May 2021 to demand the release of detained activists.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that, according to the police, Withaya’s performance amounts to royal defamation because it involved climbing onto the university sign, above which was a portrait of the King and a sign saying “Long live the King.” Withaya also poured red paint all over himself, which the police said was unsightly, and spilled paint over the university sign and the image of the King. The police also said that the gestures Withaya used during the performance, such as standing with a paint bucket over his head, and lying down with one foot pointing up at the portrait of the king, was disrespectful.

Withaya went to Phuping Rajanivej Police Station on Tuesday (5 October) to hear the charges. He was dressed as Luffy from the Japanese manga One Piece, and staged a short performance before going to meet the inquiry officer.

TLHR reported that at least 60 police officers were stationed in the area, while the police station was surrounded with metal fences. The police also tried to stop a small crowd of supporters from going inside the police station area. Officers were taking photos and videos of people, and repeatedly made announcements that gatherings are prohibited under the Emergency Decree. Withaya was released after his meeting with the inquiry officer. He has to report to the police again in 12 days, and has to submit further testimony in 20 days.

Withaya is currently facing 2 counts of lèse majesté under Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code. Along with Yotsunthon Ruttapradid, another Chiang Mai University student, he was previously charged under Section 112 and the 1979 Flag Act for a piece of installation art during a protest on 14 March 2021, which featured a mannequin wrapped in plastic in the middle of two red and white strips, on which participants at the 14 March protest were invited to write down messages. The messages were seen as defaming the King, and since the piece looks like a Thai flag without the blue stripe, which represents the monarchy, it was taken to mean that the artist does not wish the monarchy to exist in the country.

Bangladesh authorities and United Nations officials should take urgent measures to protect Rohingya refugees facing threats and violence in the Cox’s Bazar camps, Human Rights Watch said today. Rohingya community leaders and volunteer workers told Human Rights Watch that alleged members of armed Islamist groups were increasingly targeting them for extortion and other crimes.

On September 29, 2021, unidentified gunmen shot and killed Mohib Ullah, 46, chair of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), in Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar. His associates said that Mohib Ullah had repeatedly reported threats from armed groups operating in the camps to Bangladesh officials but received insufficient support from the authorities.

“Mohib Ullah’s flight from mass atrocities in Myanmar to then be killed in his place of refuge speaks volumes about the risks that Rohingya activists face every day,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Bangladesh authorities should take urgent measures, with international assistance, to protect Rohingya activists who are defending the rights of refugees.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed nine people, including Rohingya activists and Mohib Ullah’s family members, who said that the authorities did not adequately investigate Mohib Ullah’s concerns or provide protection for him and other vulnerable activists. “The Bangladesh government deployed many security forces in the camps, but they were busy subduing and controlling refugees instead of protecting them,” said one activist.

At least a dozen activists have come forward to seek protection from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and Bangladesh officials since Mohib Ullah’s killing because of renewed threats from armed groups and other risks of violence. Humanitarian workers said that the environment inside the camps has become increasingly dangerous for Rohingya activists.

Mohib Ullah had served as a leader among the nearly one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. He began receiving death threats in 2019 as his prominence grew, representing the Rohingya at the UN Human Rights Council and with the United States government. His organization said that the threats were from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and other armed groups that contested his leadership role.

In the months before his death, Mohib Ullah had expressed concern about the growing threats, activists and his family members said. In August, he sent a letter to the Bangladesh government Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, with copies to the camp-in-charge official and Special Branch in Cox’s Bazar, outlining the death threats that he and his colleagues had been receiving and requesting the office take action against the assailants, which the letter identifies as ARSA members.

One member of Mohib Ullah’s group was told in July that he would be killed if he returned to the group’s office, and that “very soon we will kill your leader.” Mohib Ullah’s colleagues said the letter received no reply.

A Bangladesh police official told Reuters they had received no reports from Mohib Ullah about any threats or requests for protection.

ARSA condemned the killing in written and audio statements and demanded authorities bring those responsible to account.

In a statement, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said that Mohib Ullah’s death “is a clear example of the insecurity in the camp, and the apparent attempts to silence moderate civil society voices.”

UNHCR said that, in response to the killing, it “has enhanced its staff presence in the camps to ensure that the Rohingya refugees have direct access to support services and can report their concerns.” However, activists close to Mohib Ullah said that they have not been provided with adequate protection.

On October 3, police reported that they had arrested five men in connection with the killing. Mohib Ullah’s associates, however, have said that those allegedly responsible for the killing are still openly operating in the camp.

An activist with his group said, “Even this morning [October 3] some people visited my shelter and threatened my family saying, ‘Ask your son to be ready because the same fate is awaiting him, like Mohib Ullah. He is on the hit list of 10 people.’ I informed camp-in-charge, who assured me of safety, but I am worried because the police are not there all the time. If they really want to kill me, I’m an easy target for them.” Mohib Ullah’s wife said that she was worried for her daughters since her husband’s killing because of recent threats demanding that they marry members of the armed group.

Some refugees alleged that Bangladesh security forces and camp authorities seemed to underplay threats from armed Islamist groups. “When we complain to the authorities about ARSA’s crimes, they don’t pay any attention,” an activist said.

Another activist alleged collusion between some officers of the Armed Police Battalion deployed in the camps and members of the armed group. He said he went into hiding after receiving threats from ARSA but returned to his shelter when police promised protection, only for them to hand him over to the militants. “I was always being threatened by ARSA members since I started working as an activist, and I finally went into hiding. A few months later, two police officers lured me to come back to the camp and then handed me over to ARSA. I had to go through inhuman torture, until I paid ARSA a heavy ransom.”

ARSA members have attacked Christians and Hindus living in the camps alongside the predominantly Muslim Rohingya. Armed groups have also targeted women working as volunteers with humanitarian agencies. Hasina, a 26-year-old activist who works on women’s empowerment, said she was a victim of extortion by ARSA members.

Bangladesh authorities should fully investigate all those who might be responsible for Mohib Ullah’s killing and work with UNHCR to respond promptly when refugees are reporting imminent threats and provide immediate and effective protection, Human Rights Watch said. Concerned governments should ensure that activists and other refugees at heightened risk are priorities in planning around refugee assistance, protection, and resettlement.

“The Bangladesh government needs to address safety in the Rohingya camps both by developing better security and taking necessary action against groups engaged in illegal activity,” Ganguly said. “These refugees fled horrific abuses and are entitled to support from Bangladesh and other governments to live in the camps without fearing for their lives.”

An anti-logging activist was on Tuesday convicted of assault against an alleged timber trader, as rights groups linked the verdict to ongoing harassment and intimidation against environmentalists in the country.

The Kampong Thom Provincial Court sentenced Chan Thoeun, who is in hiding, to two years’ imprisonment, but suspended the sentence, according to his lawyer Sam Sokong.

Sokong said the judge had also downgraded the charge from attempted murder to intentional violence with aggravating circumstances.

Thoeun has previously said that he saw a timber trader hauling timber from a community forest in July last year, but was threatened at knifepoint when he pulled out his phone to capture footage, alleging that he was the victim, not the aggressor.

Sokong said that although the two-year sentence was suspended, he considered the court’s decision unfair because his client was the victim. “We see that [the court] has not yet been given justice to the client,” he said.

Thoeun, who is a member of the Prey Lang Community Network in Kampong Thom province, said he would appeal the conviction.

“It is an injustice against me. When it comes to many huge crimes of timber [trafficking], they do not prosecute them. But they sue me and accuse me, and it is unjust,” he said. “I do not accept it because I did not do anything wrong and they came to take my phone and prosecuted me. I will appeal to the Appeal Court. The decision is unacceptable since I am a victim.”

Cambodian Center for Human Rights executive director Chak Sopheap said members of the Prey Lang Community Network have been facing harassment as well as physical and legal threats. Environmentalists should not be facing such actions under a democracy, she said.

“I hope that the government should reconsider its commitment to the protection of natural resources, and that commitment can only be achieved with the participation of local communities,” Sopheap said. “As long as local communities that are active in protecting the environment remain under threat, it contradicts the government’s claimed commitment.”

The network, which works to protect the massive Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, has been banned from conducting patrols since last year. Environmentalists have been arrested in the protected area, and the U.S. this year pulled funding to the government for Prey Lang-related projects, citing continued logging, failure to prosecute timber traders and silencing of environmentalists. Other environmentalists have also been jailed and charged with plotting against the government.

Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for campaigns, said Thoeun should never have been charged or tried, and his conviction fit a pattern of silencing and intimidating environmental activists in Prey Lang and across Cambodia.

“Chan Thoeun and the PLCN have been standing up against powerful illegal logging interests for years,” Hah said. “They have defended the Prey Lang forest while the Cambodian authorities have turned a blind eye to the rampant destruction of this vital ecosystem, which is an essential part of the culture of indigenous Kuy communities.”

Junta authorities arrested the teenaged president of the Basic Education Students’ Union of Naypyitaw’s Zabuthiri Township at his home earlier this week, according to the group.

Tun Aung Kyaw, age 15, was taken into detention by two police officers and two local administrators, a spokesperson for the Naypyitaw Students’ Union said.

It is said that the military units arrested Tun Aung Kyaw, the president of the basic education students’ union of Zabuthiri township, Naypyidaw, at his home on October 3 evening.

“He is technically a minor, so they said that they just had some questions to ask and that they’d let him go soon,” he told Myanmar Now.

At the time of reporting, the boy was still being held at the No. 3 police station in Zabuthiri and had not been allowed contact with his family, the student union representative said.

At 10pm on Tuesday, military troops reportedly ransacked his house.

Myanmar Now called the police station for comment on Tun Aung Kyaw’s arrest but the calls went unanswered.

Another Naypyitaw student leader, Yan Paing, was arrested by the military on May 2 and died on October 1 during an interrogation, according to a statement released by the Naypyitaw Students’ Union.

According to the statistics reported by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), there have now been at least 7,104 civilians detained by the junta since the February 1 coup and at least 1,158 civilians killed during that same period.

As they have been active in participating in anti-coup demonstrations, student union members have been frequent targets of military arrests, but the exact number of students in detention is not known.

Most recently, four students preparing to protest against the junta were arrested near the Pathi dam in Taungoo Township, Bago Region on the evening of September 19.

Wai Yan Phyo Moe, the vice president of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), was charged with violating Section 505a of the Penal Code for incitement at the Mayangone Township court in Yangon this week, according to his lawyer.

Lawyer Thet Naung told Myanmar Now that they heard about new charges against Wai Yan Phyo Moe during his other hearings in the Kyauktada and Kamayut township courts on Tuesday.

“We haven’t seen him for a while as the offices and prisons have been closed. We only learnt briefly about this Section 505 charge during his court hearings at Kyauktada and Kamayut courts,” he said.

The lawyer said he has not submitted a power of attorney document for the new charge, which would allow him to represent Wai Yan Phyo Moe at hearings in Mayangone.

Wai Yan Phyo Moe was already facing charges for the violation of Section 19 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law in Kyauktada for allegedly breaking rules surrounding demonstrations, as well as for incitement in both Kyauktada and Kamayut.

If convicted, each incitement charge carries a three-year prison sentence and the Section 19 charge is accompanied by a three-month sentence and/or a fine.

Many detained anti-junta protesters have been charged in different townships where they led or participated in demonstrations on the pretext that they allegedly broke the law by taking part in rallies after the February 1 military coup.

Thet Naung said that Wai Yan Phyo Moe had been held in Insein Prison since his arrest in March.

He noted that his client was in good health but that he was concerned because Wai Yan Phyo Moe had initially been placed in a cell with violent offenders instead of other political prisoners.

“We’ve requested that the prison authorities move him and they agreed to, but they haven’t actually moved him yet. It’s been too long already,” Thet Naung explained.

Wai Yan Phyo Moe was one of around 500 civilians arrested during a crackdown on the General Strike Committee’s protest column in Yangon’s Tamwe Township on March 3.

Seven detained student activists including Wai Yan Phyo Moe were placed in solitary confinement for one week after they refused to read the prison rules out loud on April 22, a punitive measure typically demanded of inmates by prison officials. They were later sent to the prison ward where those convicted of violent crimes are held, and have reportedly been asked for bribes, forced to do hard labour, and have received death threats.

Very early yesterday morning, officers with the police Rapid Action Battalion raided Raka’s home in Uttara, a suburb of Dhaka, and took her and her three sons to the battalion’s headquarters in Dhaka, according to news reports and Kanak Sarwar, a journalist and Raka’s brother, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

Sarwar, who lives in exile in the United States, told CPJ that he believed that the arrest was in retaliation for his journalism and that Raka, who is a homemaker, had not committed any crime.

Police repeatedly questioned Raka about Sarwar, asking why he opposed the Bangladesh government and calling him “a freedom fighter,” Sarwar told CPJ, saying that he was able to briefly speak on the phone with his sister in detention. He said that authorities released Raka’s sons after about 30 hours, but she remains detained in a cell with no bed.

The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka ordered Raka to be detained for five days, Sarwar said, adding that she suffers from asthma and has experienced difficulty breathing in custody as she is recovering from COVID-19. He also said that police broke several items inside the house during the raid, including closets and jewelry boxes.

Sarwar told CPJ that he believes all authorities’ accusations against his sister are false.

“Punishing exiled journalist Kanak Sarwar by arresting his sister, Nusrat Shahrin Raka, is a crude and barbaric form of retaliation that should shame the government of Bangladesh,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must immediately release Raka, cease targeting critical journalists or their family members, and allow the media to operate without interference.”

In a press release issued yesterday, which CPJ reviewed, the Rapid Action Battalion alleged that Raka was involved in “destroying peace and order in the country by spreading false, defamatory, and provocative information about the government and important personalities of the state on social media” and accused her of involvement with an unnamed group engaging in “conspiratorial propaganda activities” with Sarwar.

The press release also claimed that authorities seized a mobile phone, passport, methamphetamine, and anti-state content from Raka’s home, and that she revealed during interrogation that she was an active member of an anti-state propaganda and conspiracy ring.

The Rapid Action Battalion filed two complaints at the Uttara West police station under the Digital Security Act and Narcotics Control Act, which CPJ reviewed.

The Digital Security Act complaint alleges that Raka violated three sections of the act: the publication of offensive, false, or threatening information; defamation; and the transmission or publication of content that deteriorates law and order. Each of those offenses can carry a prison sentence of three to seven years and a fine of 300,000 to 500,000 taka (US $3,497 to $5,827), according to that law.

The other complaint alleges that Raka possessed narcotics; under the Narcotics Control Act, Raka could face up to three years in prison if charged and convicted, according to Sarwar, citing her lawyer.

Sarwar told CPJ that a fake Facebook page had been created in recent weeks using Raka’s name, email address, and phone number, and that account published posts criticizing the government. Sarwar said that Raka filed a complaint to the Uttara West police station about that account on October 1, which CPJ reviewed.

The police complaint under the Digital Security Act cited posts made on that Facebook page, and attributed them to Raka.

Sarwar is the former senior correspondent for the privately owned broadcaster Ekushey TV; authorities held him from March 3 to November 16, 2015, on accusations of sedition after Ekushey TV broadcasted a speech by Tarique Rahman, the son of an opposition leader, according to CPJ research and Sarwar. He now operates the YouTube channel Kanak Sarwar News, which covers Bangladesh politics and has been critical of the ruling Awami League.

On December 8, 2020, the Bangladesh High Court directed authorities to block Sarwar’s social media pages after he interviewed a politician in Bangladesh on YouTube, as CPJ documented at the time.

CPJ emailed the Uttara West police station for comment, but did not receive any reply. CPJ called and messaged Ashique Billah, spokesperson of the Rapid Action Battalion, but did not receive any response.

House committee on good government and public accountability chairman Michael Aglipay unceremoniously removed Rappler journalist Rambo Talabong from a Viber group with reporters on Monday, September 27.

Aglipay kicked out Talabong after the journalist wrote a story on the DIWA representative’s latest defense of the Duterte administration.

Aglipay's comment was about the Senate hearing's revelation that the production stickers on the face masks procured by the government from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation were tampered. The tampering of the production stickers effectively also changed the expiry dates.

For Aglipay, the changing of expiry dates was not a problem, as he asked a Department of Health (DOH) official if the alleged expired face masks hurt or killed any of the health workers who used them. DOH undersecretary Carolina Taino said no.

This exchange was the subject of Talabong’s story, which included a video excerpt on Aglipay’s interpellation during the good government and public accountability panel hearing.

Aglipay then singled out Talabong during the hearing – even if CNN Philippines also published a similar article with the same angle.

The congressman argued Talabong’s article was “one-sided” as it did not include DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III’s remarks that the shelf life of face shields was 36 months.

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“So it is one-sided, and I’m calling him out to be balanced, because they are claiming to be a balanced organization, but this article of his never mentioned that Secretary Duque said that the shelf life is 36 months, and he only focused on my comment, making it appear that we are one-sided here, and covering up the government,” said the ally of Speaker Lord Allan Velasco. The House's line of questioning in its hearings veers at countering findings at the Senate, defending the Duterte government's deals with Pharmally.

Shahid Zehri, a reporter for a local TV news channel Metro News 1 was killed on October 10 when a bomb exploded in his car in the Hub area of Balochistan province. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Pakistan affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), urge the Pakistan government to ensure those involved in the attack are promptly brought to justice.

Journalist Zehri, 35, and friend, were travelling to Karachi by car when a bomb detonated around midnight on October 10. Both suffered critical injuries. CCTV footage confirms the bomb was attached to the journalist’s car where it exploded. Some reports suggested it was a homemade device.

The injured journalist and friend were initially taken to Hub Civil Hospital then subsequently brought to Karachi for treatment. The journalist, Zehri, was declared dead at Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital in Karachi.

Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility of the attack. The group also claimed that the journalist was spying on them. IFJ understands Zehri was a strong voice for the Hub Chowki, often reported on unrest in the region. Pakistan’s Baluchistan province has not enacted any legislation protecting journalists.

According to the IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report 2020-2021, nine journalists were murdered in Pakistan in 2020-2021.

On September 29, citizen journalist Tran Thi Tuyet Dieu’s eight-year sentence under Vietnam’s Penal Code was upheld in the court of appeal in Danang. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the use of the Penal Code to silence critical voices and calls for the immediate release of Tuyet Dieu.

Tuyet Dieu’s appeal was refused in Danang’s court, more than a year after her arrest and detainment on August 21, 2020. She was sentenced on April 23, 2021 for breaching article 117 of the Vietnamese penal code, which criminalises “creating, storing and disseminating information and materials against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”. Reports indicate that Tuyet Dieu endured ongoing harassment by police in the years before her arrest.

Previously an employee of a state-run newspaper, Tuyet Dieu had managed a Facebook and YouTube account where she published 25 articles and nine videos considered ‘anti-state’ by authorities. During a search of Tuyet Dieu’s home, authorities found materials sympathetic to the imprisoned pro-democracy activist Nguyen Viet Dung on her laptop.

According to Tuyet Dieu’s lawyer, Nguyen Kha Thanh, she pleaded innocent at her trial earlier this year. Thanh said that his client’s sentence was harsh given she had an otherwise clean record.

“She did not accept the accusations as the trial failed to find a person harmed by her actions,” Thanh said.“But the court said her actions caused harm to the nation, a common tactic that allows them to not have to show any specific harmed individuals,” he added.

Tuyet Dieu’s communication with her lawyer and relatives was barred for the first three months of her imprisonment. Her original trial was postponed without justification, a change only announced upon her lawyer’s arrival in court.

Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code is a vaguely defined piece of legislation commonly used to silence criticism of the Vietnamese government. Journalists Pham Chi Thanh and Le Van Dung, both vocal critics of Vietnam’s single-party system, were sentenced under the article earlier this year.

After disappearing while covering a farmer protest in Lakhimpur Kheri, a reporter for Sadhna Prime News was found dead on October 4. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Indian affiliates, the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) and National Union of Journalists- India (NUJ-I) condemn the tragic incident and urge for a judicial inquiry into the case.

Local journalist Raman Kashyap’s body was found in a mortuary a day after his reported disappearance while covering the violent demonstrations in Lakhimpur Kheri, where local farmers and political supporters collided. Kashyap was among eight others allegedly killed in the demonstration involving hundreds of farmers.

The farmers gathered to protest the visit of Uttar Pradesh’s deputy chief minister, Keshav M to the village of the union minister of state for home affairs, Ajay Kumar Mishra, in Tikunia. The incident marks a lethal intensification of the unrest in India since the introduction of controversial agricultural laws.

There are conflicting accounts of the circumstances in which Kashyap died. The editor of the Sadhna Prime news channel, Brij Mohan Singh, alleged that while covering the protest Kashyap was ‘wounded by miscreants’. A complaint filed by Kashyap’s father, Ram Dulare Kashyap, claims that Kashyap was “shot at” for filming a VIP convoy that killed farmers.

Another journalist said that in addition to being shot in the hand, Kashyap was hit by a car that was allegedly carrying Mishra’s son, Ashsih Misra. Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a coalition of Indian farmers' unions protesting against the agricultural laws, also claimed that a vehicle carrying Ashish Misra ran over the protesting farmers, killing at least eight people. An FIR has been lodged against Ashish Mishra and 15 others for murder and inciting violence with Lakhimpur Kheri police.

The Indian journalist fraternity has strongly condemned the killing of the journalist. The Editors Guild of India called for a “court-led special investigation team” to investigate the case. The Lucknow Journalists’ Association wrote a letter to the Additional Chief Secretary seeking justice. Local journalists are demanding compensation and the immediate arrest of the accused in the case.

A court in Kazakhstan's largest city has sentenced 13 political activists to up to five years in prison on extremism-related charges that they reject.

All 13 were activists with the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) of fugitive businessman and former Energy Minister Mukhtar Ablyazov, who was convicted in absentia of murder and embezzlement, and the Koshe party.

The court sentenced four of the activists -- Abai Begimbetov, Askhat Zheksebaev, Qairat Qylyshev, and Noyan Rakhymzhanov -- to five years in prison.

The other nine got various parole-like restrictions on their freedom for terms from one to two years, with seven also sentenced to 100 hours of compulsory labor per year. The nine sentenced to restricted liberty will not be allowed to change their place of residence or leave the Almaty city limits.

The hearing, which was conducted online with the defendants appearing virtually from a remand prison, was interrupted several times as the defendants chanted, "We are not extremists!"

During their trial, the defendants claimed they only participated in peaceful protests and exercised their constitutionally protected rights.

The Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law issued a statement condemning the sentences and saying they showed that "the ossified authoritarian system will not allow people intent on democratic change to join together."

Ablyazov is an exiled former head of BTA Bank and an outspoken critic of the Kazakh authorities who has fought multiple extradition battles over accusations that he embezzled billions. The government designated the DVK an "extremist' organization in March 2018.

Human Rights Watch earlier this year criticized the Kazakh government for using anti-extremism laws as a tool to persecute critics and civic activists. Several hundred people have been prosecuted for membership in the Koshe party.

The Kazakh authorities have insisted there are no political prisoners in the Central Asian country.

Reporter to Lumbini Television and Butwal FM Dinesh Gyawali was attacked while reporting in Butwal on October 10. Butwal lies in Lumbini Province of Nepal.

Reporter Gyawali was attacked while reporting on conflict among local protestors and policepersons in the industrial area of Motipur, Butwal.

The raged public attacked Gyawali even after he showed his press identity card and said that he was journalist.

"I tried to escape the attack but fell down and other two of the protestors rescued me. I also lost my mobile in the incident", he shared with Freedom Forum.

"Other reporters however, escaped the attack. Neither Police persons nor the protesting locals cooperated with us while reporting", said Gyawali.

Reporter Gyawali has sustained injury on his head and hands. He is undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

Freedom Forum condemns the attack upon journalist while reporting. In most of the cases recorded at FF, journalists have been victim of attack while covering the protest even in presence of the police persons.

Two more were arrested by combined elements of the police and military in Quezon province, yesteray, October 6, at around 2:00 am.

According to Karapatan-Southern Tagalog, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Batangas Spokesperson Erlindo “Lino” Baez and Anakpawis Partylist Batangas Coordinator Willy Capareño were arrested in sitio Centro, barangay Manggalang 1, Sariaya, Quezon province by no less than 50 members of the Sariaya police and the Philippine Army’s 59th Infantry Battalion.

The arrest was made by virtue of a warrant of arrest on charges against Baez for illegal possession of firearms and explosives. A press release from the CALABARZON Police Regional Office meanwhile tagged Baez and Capareño as “high-ranking members” of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Both Baez and Capareño are no strangers to red-tagging and state harassment. The warrant issued against Baez came from the March 7 raid of his home in Santo Tomas, Batangas, where police and military supposedly “found” firearms and explosives. The raid was part of “Bloody Sunday”, which resulted in the deaths of nine activists and the arrests of seven others.

No warrant was issued for Capareño; however, he was allegedly found to be in possession of one hand-grenade. It is not yet clear what the charges against Capareño are.

Baez is the head of a family of activists. His son, Ronilo, is a political prisoner currently detained since June 3, 2010 on charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. He was one of three activists arrested in Taysan while they were integrating in a farming community.

Another son, Edrean, was a member of Anakbayan before he was killed by state forces on May 26, 2021 near Padre Garcia, Batangas, in a supposed “encounter” between members of the New People’s Army.

In 2019, Capareño received a text message from someone he does not know, telling him to go back to his home in San Juan, Batangas or else he would be arrested. This threat was part of a series of harassment against known leaders and progressives in the province.

Baez and Capareño’s arrest come one day shy of seven months since Bloody Sunday. Progressives in Southern Tagalog have long since contended that Bloody Sunday marked an “intensification of crackdown” against activists and community leaders in the region.

Multiple reports of human rights violations have come to light since March 7, including the murder of labor leader Dandy Miguel on March 28; the disappearance of former Kabataan Partylist coordinator Kemuel Ian Cometa on May 21; the arrest of peasant organizers Dana Marcellana and Christian Relao on June 25, as well as multiple icidents of threats, harassment, and intimidation by state forces.

Youth organization Gabriela Youth Quezon has called the arrests “a manifestation that despite the crisis caused by the pandemic, there is a proliferation of harassment of silencing against progressive individuals who are fighting for people’s rights.” Other groups have similarly called for the immediate release of Baez and Capareño.

Both Baez and Capareño’s families have yet to make contact with their loved ones. Initial reports indicate that they were brought to the Sariaya Municipal Police Station but no confirmation has been made yet as of press time. Karapatan-Southern Tagalog is currently spearheading efforts to locate the two activists and ensure their safety.

Vietnamese authorities on Monday arrested a Facebook user, charging him with “abusing freedom and democracy” for writing a series of online posts they said had defamed the country’s leaders, state media reported on Monday.

Vo Hoang Tho, 36 years old and a resident of the Ninh Kieu district of southern Vietnam’s Can Tho City, had published 47 posts on his Minh Long Facebook page criticizing government efforts to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19 in the one-party communist state, media sources said.

Containment efforts, including community lockdowns and other harsh restrictions, are widely unpopular in Vietnam, and Tho’s arrest was just the latest in a continuing crackdown on Facebook users who use the popular social media platform to voice dissenting views.

Can Tho City’s Investigation Agency said Tho had formerly worked as a journalist but did not identify the media organization for which he worked.

RFA has reported nearly 30 cases in which Vietnamese citizens have been arrested for political offenses over social media posts since the beginning of this year. Among those now serving sentences for Facebook posts are journalists, bloggers, and another citizen who had posted complaints about coronavirus policies.

On Sept. 10, Vietnamese authorities arrested and charged a woman with “carrying out activities to overthrow the government,” making her the third person apprehended this year for joining an exile Vietnamese organization called a terrorist group by Hanoi, according to state media reports.

Le Thi Kim Phi, 62, had used a Facebook profile under the name Phi Kim to connect with members of the Provisional Government of Vietnam, a U.S.-based opposition group, said the investigation division of southern An Gian province’s police department.

And on Sept. 8, authorities in Can Tho indicted five journalists from the Bao Sach (Clean Newspaper) Facebook-based news outlet for publishing reports and videos dealing with politically sensitive social issues.

Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. But arrests continue in 2021.

Soldiers on Tuesday evening arrested six students from Dagon University who were staying together in an apartment in downtown Yangon, a student leader has said.

Min Htet Han, chair of the university’s students’ union, told Myanmar Now it is unclear why the six were arrested, but that soldiers arrived at the 39th street apartment in Kyauktada saying they were inspecting overnight guest lists.

“They were staying on the top floor and it was the only apartment that was checked,” he said. “I think it’s safe to assume that they were looking for them in particular.” Informants may have told the military they were staying there, he suggested.

The six detainees are zoology student Wutyi Aung, chemistry student Thinzat Zaw, law student Sithu Aung Tin, archeology student Ye Lin Oo, geology student Myint Thein Naing, and Nay Htet Lin, who studies history.

Earlier this month the former chair of the Dagon University Students’ Union, Min Thukha Kyaw, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a military court. He had taken part in anti-coup protests before his arrest more than three months ago. The military accused him of receiving combat training from the Kachin Independence Army.

Students have been among the most dedicated opponents of the military’s February 1 power grab, and have been repeatedly targeted in crackdowns in recent months.

Htet Aung, the 22-year-old former president of the Pyay University Students’ Union and vice president of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), was arrested by 10 plain clothed military personnel at a house in Paungde Township, Bago Region, where he was hiding on September 6.

“They took him saying they had some questions. We don’t know exactly why he was arrested,” said Nyi Nyi Zin, an ABFSU member.

Htet Aung had only been released from prison in February after serving several months of a one-year sentence for taking part in a protest against the war in Rakhine last year.

His family say they are worried for his wellbeing and do not know where he is being held.

In July, the junta detained nine students including Htet Wai Yan, the president of the Government Technical Institute Students’ Union in Letpadan, as well as Yan Naing Aung, an executive member of the Pyay Students’ Union.

Zin Ko Ko Khant, a 20-year-old student from Taungoo University, was detained a few days later.

Kazakh police detained eight protesters, mostly women, demanding the release of relatives they say are being illegally held in China.

The October 1 protests were the latest in a series of demonstrations in Kazakhstan linked to the massive detention of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other ethnic groups in the neighboring Chinese province of Xinjiang.

Demonstrators have demanded Kazakh authorities do more to protect ethnic Kazakhs who have been caught up in the Chinese sweep. Kazakhstan’s government, however, has been wary of angering Beijing, which is a major investor in Kazakhstan and throughout Central Asia.

One of the protesters in the Kazakh capital on October 1 was wheelchair-user Khalida Aqytkhan, 65, who fell to the ground as police were forcing her into a vehicle.

The most recent wave of protests began September 20 when demonstrators traveled to Nur-Sultan from the country’s commercial capital, Almaty, where groups had rallied for months in front of the Chinese Consulate there.

As many as 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of Xinjiang's other indigenous, mostly Muslim, ethnic groups have been taken to detention centers in the western Chinese region, according to the U.S. State Department.

China denies that the facilities are internment camps but people who have fled the province say that thousands are undergoing "political indoctrination" at a network of facilities known officially as reeducation camps.

After Kazakhstan gained independence following the Soviet collapse in 1991, many ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang and elsewhere resettled in Kazakhstan, as part of a state program.

Many obtained permanent residence or citizenship but continue to visit Xinjiang either to see relatives or for bureaucratic reasons. Some have reported facing pressure from Chinese authorities or even arrests and imprisonment

Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs. The region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans.

China's largest ethnicity, the Han, is the second-largest ethnic group in Xinjiang.

A former reporter who had been missing since September 1 is in detention at a Yangon police station and has been charged with violating Section 505a of the Penal Code for incitement, according to her family.

Relatives of 35-year-old Thuzar were notified on Wednesday night that she was sent to the East Dagon police station on Wednesday after spending nearly one month in an interrogation centre, during which time her family was unable to contact her or confirm her whereabouts.

Ye Ko Ko, Thuzar’s husband, said that they had been preparing to file an official missing person’s report on Friday, the day that would have marked one month since her disappearance.

“They contacted us at around 8pm last night. They said she was at the police station and that we could not see her in person yet,” he told Myanmar Now on Thursday.

He added that a police officer came to the family home on Thursday morning, delivered a letter from Thuzar, and allowed them to send basic medicine and sanitary supplies to her.

“She wrote us a letter saying that she was in good health and that she was worried about her family. She also asked for her mother not to be worried about her,” Ye Ko Ko said.

Thuzar had a warrant out for her arrest for incitement since May, and escaped a military raid on her house during the same month. It is believed that she went into hiding in Yangon’s Kamayut Township.

Ye Ko Ko said that the last time he had contact with his wife was a phone call on the afternoon of September 1.

When it was apparent that she was missing, Thuzar’s family contacted interrogation centres, police stations and even the notorious Insein Prison in their search for her, but received no confirmation that she was in junta custody.

She has been remanded to the East Dagon police station, with a court hearing scheduled for October 13. If convicted, she faces up to three years in prison.

During the raid on Thuzar’s home in May, junta troops arrested Ye Ko Ko when they were unable to find her, holding him in an interrogation centre until he was released on bail four days later.

“We all felt like it was the end of the world when we couldn’t find her for 29 days. We were really relieved when we found out that she was alive and that she was being held at the police station. We are going to take every legal step possible to get her back,” her husband said.

Thuzar was a member of the Myanmar Press Council formed during the National League for Democracy government’s tenure, and had previously worked as a reporter for RFA, Modern Journal, The Irrawaddy, 7 Days News, and Friday Times News Journal.

Following the February 1 coup and until May, Thuzar worked as a freelance reporter at the Friday Times and Myanmar Pressphoto Agency.

The military council has arrested around 100 journalists since the coup. Although some have been released, more than 50 were still in detention at the time of reporting, according to a September 16 report by Detained Journalists Information Myanmar.

On an August morning at a wet market in Mandalay’s industrial suburbs, a 50-year-old man was selling noodles and cheerfully greeting fellow vendors and customers alike.

Win Ko Oo was well-known for his friendliness. But not everyone who had grown familiar with his smiling face knew that he had once had a very different life.

When the year began, Win Ko Oo was a train driver with 25 years’ experience. But then the army seized power, and everything changed. As someone who had lived through the aftermath of a similar coup in 1988, he knew he had to resist the return of military rule.

A month after Myanmar’s elected civilian government was overthrown, Win Ko Oo made up his mind to join the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) that was sweeping the country.

“I hesitated at first because I had to think about my family. We had nowhere else to go. But in the end, my hatred for the regime outweighed my concerns about the hardships we would have to face, so I quit,” he told Myanmar Now that August morning.

Mandalay’s railway workers were among the first to join the movement in large numbers. In the department that Win Ko Oo belonged to, 285 of 319 staff members walked off the job in an effort to deny the regime control over state mechanisms.

This resulted in hundreds of railway employees and their families being forced to leave the housing compound where most of the striking workers lived.

But as one of the leaders of the protesting workers, Win Ko Oo also had another reason to worry: a warrant for his arrest on charges of incitement.

Hong Kong's largest independent trade union disbanded on Sunday, further stoking concerns over the space for civil society groups as a national security law and the sweeping powers it gives the police stifle dissent in the global financial center.

Founded in 1990, the 145,000 member Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) voted to disband, bringing an end to the organization as authorities exert greater control on groups and unions in the business hub.

While anti-government protests in 2019 generated a new wave of labor activism in Hong Kong and triggered a 35% jump in registered trade unions, groups have been scrambling to disband since Beijing imposed the security law last year.

Fears of falling foul of the law and facing terms of up to life in jail have seen at least 29 trade unions disband since the start of this year, according to a tally by Reuters.

HKCTU vice-president Leo Tang said members of the group had received threats to their personal safety, without elaborating.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has denied that the government is carrying out a crackdown on civil society, and authorities say all law enforcement actions have been based on evidence and have nothing to do with the political beliefs of those arrested.

Student activist Patsaravalee Tanakitvibulpon has been indicted on a royal defamation charge related to a speech she gave at a protest on 24 March 2021, in which she said that the monarchy must reform itself in order to survive.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said on Thursday (30 September) that the public prosecutor at the Southern Bangkok Department of Criminal Litigation has decided to indict Patsaravalee for royal defamation under Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code, or the lèse majesté law, and a violation of the Emergency Decree charge resulting from her participation in the 24 March 2021 protest at the Ratchaprasong Intersection.

During the protest, Patsaravalee gave a speech calling for the King to conduct himself in a manner that befits the head of the state. She also said that the King’s expansion of power will endanger the institution of the monarchy, and that even though an absolute monarchy can be created, it can also fall in the next reign.

She made 3 demands to develop the institution of the monarchy: having a single, inseparable armed force, ending intervention in any political groups by the monarchy, and quickly returning public assets which have been transferred to the King’s personal ownership.

3 members of the activist group Thalufah were denied bail after 15 members of the group surrendered to the police yesterday (1 October) over an arrest warrant issued with regard to an incident on 3 August 2021 when they splashed paint in front of Thung Song Hong Police Station.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that the police initially said the activists would be granted bail on a security of 10,000 baht per person. However, Metropolitan Police Division 2 Deputy Commander Pol Col Saksit Meesawat later told the activists they would be taken to court for a temporary detention request. The police claimed that the temporary detention request was necessary because they have not finished the case report for submision to the public prosecutor.

12 activists were later granted bail on a security of 35,000 baht each, but 3 were denied bail. The three had previously been arrested during the 13 October 2020 protest at the Democracy Monument, and according to TLHR, the court denied them bail on the grounds that they had violated their previous bail conditions. However, TLHR noted that the bail conditions were set on 21 September 2021, which was after the incident on 3 August 2021.

TLHR said that they filed another bail request for the 3 activists today (2 October), but the request was once again denied.

On 3 August 2021, the activists splashed paint in front of Thung Song Hong Police Station following their release after spending a night in detention on charges relating to a protest at the Narcotics Suppression Bureau on 2 August to demand that the police return a speaker truck seized after the 1 August ‘car mob’ rally.

Activists Jatupat Boonpattarasaksa and Thawee Thiangwiset, who are also Thalufah members, had surrendered themselves at Thung Song Hong Police Station on 9 August 2021. They were charged with violating the Emergency Decree, damaging public property, and taking part in an assembly of more than 10 people which caused a breach of public peace. On the same day, activist Songpol Sonthirak, another Thalufah member, was also arrested.

The Criminal Court later granted bail to Tawee and Songpol on a security of 35,000 baht, but denied bail to Jatupat on the grounds that he faces other charges for similar offenses, had broken his bail conditions which prohibited him from repeating these offenses, and was likely to flee or cause danger if he is released. Jatupat has been repeatedly denied bail and is still in detention at the Bangkok Remand Prison.

The North Sulawesi Regional Police conducted an in-depth investigation to uncover and arrest the perpetrators of the shooting of a resident of Toruakat Village, Bolaang Mongondow.

The shooting occurred during the installation of boundary markers at the Bolingongot plantation, the mining location of PT Bulawan Daya Lestari (BDL).

"The police will continue to work professionally in handling this incident", said Head of Public Relations, Kombes Jules Abraham Abast, in Manado, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, September 29.

Jules Abraham said that the police continued to make various efforts to deal with the conflict which caused five victims, namely one was shot dead and four people were injured.

The Police also appealed to the public to maintain a conducive security and order situation.

"The public and both parties are advised to remain calm, not easily provoked by the situation, and to fully entrust the handling of this incident to the police", he said.

He explained that the conflict occurred on the afternoon of Monday, September 27, shortly after the installation of the stakes at the location. Allegedly involving the guards at the location of PT BDL with the community of Toruakat Village, Bolmong Regency.

Information was obtained, the injured victims consisted of three guards at the location of PT BDL and one resident of Toruakat Village. While one victim who died was a resident of Toruakat Village.

"Until now, the police have added security personnel around the scene to prevent further conflicts. Police personnel also carry out patrols around Toruakat and Dumoga", said Kombes Jules.

A journalist is being questioned by police after Defense Minister Tea Banh, head of the CPP working group for Koh Kong, apparently instructed local officials about taking legal action and countering the journalist’s criticism of a deputy governor.

Youn Chhiv, who runs the Koh Kong Hot News website, was purportedly part of the land dispute himself while reporting that authorities were evicting people from state land they had farmed for years.

In his reports, Chhiv said authorities were violating Prime Minister Hun Sen’s call last year to grant land titles to ordinary people who had long-standing claims on state land.

An audio recording, shared with VOD, appears to show Defense Minister Banh instructing Koh Kong officials to take action against Chhiv. Several government-aligned media outlets have reported on Banh’s instructions, including some that quoted from the recording. Koh Kong provincial information department director Mom Malika said the recording could have been shared in a group with provincial officials, but declined to elaborate. Banh could not be reached for comment.

Banh’s purported voice in the recording says he told provincial governor Mithona Phouthorng to pursue a lawsuit against Chhiv.

“Just a moment ago I told Mithona to check and to discuss with the provincial law expert to file a lawsuit against him. He twisted the truth and promoted bad ideas, and we need to clarify it,” it says. “We have to make urgent reports to send to all the places about the administration’s actions against encroachers of land.”

He would call on Fresh News staffers to help spread information that would correct Chhiv’s video reports, it adds.

“In there, there is a Fresh News representative, and [we will] send it to him to help disseminate that the video twisted the truth,” the recording says. “Take action quickly, and should not be silent, and they will disseminate it all over the place. It has caused a mess and issues, destroying reputations. [We’re] discussing it with a legal expert and handling it.”

Other media would also be enlisted to help, it says.

“[We] urgently need to discuss with the media in the province and attack him first, directly, with his name,” it says. “All media should publish it in advance, and [then] make a written letter and consult with the legal expert to send the case in time. [We] should not allow this. It is unacceptable.”

Chhiv had made a mistake when he “attacked the administration’s measures,” it says.

“He has violated and attacked the administration’s measures, and if we do not handle this carefully, we cannot control the state, and the state needs to take action against the violator through administrative measures,” it says, noting that villagers were told to leave but failed to follow instructions.

In one of Chhiv’s videos, he interviews three villagers who say they came to live on the land, in Botom Sakor district, in 2007. They say authorities have this year been destroying their cashew trees, sugarcane and cassava plants to try to evict them without compensation. About 130 officers from police, military police and local administrations had come to clear their land, they say.

“People survive through their farmland, but now they have cleared it all. So where can people plant their crops and rice?” one villager asks, pleading for help from Prime Minister Hun Sen and Defense Minister Banh.

“Our authorities have not followed samdech’s remarks. They might know that samdech would lose [power] one day, so they do this and they do not follow samdech,” the villager says in the video. “They do not look after the people and they only destroy people.”

Chhiv says in the video that villagers come to his office and ask for his help, telling him they’ve been threatened with arrest. “Do they not know where the provincial governor is?” he asks.

He also mentions sub-decrees that have privatized over 100,000 hectares of Koh Kong parks, ostensibly to give titles to villagers using the land. He asks why the villagers are not being given titles, but being evicted instead.

In one Facebook post, Chhiv directly criticizes deputy governor Sok Sothy, saying the official is breaking people’s hearts.

Botum Sakor district police chief Sok Phon said on Tuesday afternoon that Chhiv had come in that day for questioning at the police station.

“Our police, with the deputy provincial chief, are in the process of questioning. … We have questioned him for about four hours, and we do not know yet [whether to send him to court]. Wait until the work has finished,” Phon said.

The provincial administration, meanwhile, issued a statement on Sunday saying Chhiv had disseminated “baseless information that is not true.”

The statement highlights one video, “Koh Kong Provincial Deputy Governor Sok Sothy Is Cruel and Abuses Citizens.”

“The publication of this information is intended to tarnish the reputation of Mr. Sok Sothy, Koh Kong deputy governor, and hurts the reputation of the provincial administration, confuses the public and causes confusion and social unrest,” the statement says.

It says authorities went to Thma Sar commune on September 19 after issuing two prior warnings to people who had illegally encroached on state land and built huts. Authorities were “implementing administrative measures” against illegal encroachment, it says.

“Among those encroachers, there is Youn Chhiv, the journalist, the person who tried to disseminate the distorted truth,” the statement says, requesting all journalists to respect the law.

Sothy, the deputy governor criticized by Chhiv, said on Monday that he had submitted a complaint to provincial police and the case was now in their hands.

“The land is a national sanctuary … when he published such distortions of the truth like this — it damages reputations, and most importantly the public misunderstands, especially people who live outside and do not know that the land is a national sanctuary.”

Sok Sovan, a provincial reporter in Koh Kong, said that as far as he knew, Chhiv had a cashew farm on the land in question.

But the heavy-handed response from authorities was chilling, he said.

“It impacts other journalists. As you know, when a journalist posts on Facebook, they can charge [us] saying it is a red-handed crime,” Sovan said. “If the journalist published something wrong, they should pursue [the case] through the Press Law.”

“Journalists face high risks because in our world, publishing some wrong information often happens,” he added. “It’s a challenge when they file a case to court and we face imprisonment.”

Youn Chhiv, journalist and owner of website Koh Kong Hot News, was sentenced to a years imprisonment on September 30 for incitement under Cambodia’s Criminal Code, after reporting on a government land dispute. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Cambodian Journalists Alliance (CamboJA) condemn the imprisonment and intimidation of Youn Chhiv under the Criminal Code and call for the immediate cessation of all charges against him.

The journalist was charged with incitement to cause a felony over publishing alleged misinformation about a land dispute at Botum Sakor National Park. After two days of police questioning without a lawyer, the Chhiv was sentenced to one year in prison under Cambodia’s Criminal Code.

Chhiv claimed that authorities were unlawfully evicting citizens from land they had both farmed and inhabited for years, in direct contravention of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s call late last year to grant land titles to those who had long-standing claims on state land. According to Vey Pherom, deputy prosecutor at the provincial court in Koh Kong, Chhiv admitted that the above claims were false.

In a leaked audio recording, a voice, identified as Defence Minister Tea Banh, can be heard instructing Koh Kong officials and state media to act against Chhiv. “[We] urgently need to discuss with the media in the province and attack him first, directly, with his name,” it says. There have been multiple government-aligned media outlets that have reported on Bahn’s instructions, condemning Chhiv’s reports as baseless.

Provincial reporter in Koh Kong, Sok Savan said that the case had been kept extremely confidential, and only family members were admitted into the courtroom. Savan indicated that authorities ought to have used the Press Law, not the Criminal Code, or allowed Chhiv to apologise publicly and remove the videos. “This case is irregular and inappropriate. In a democratic country, when a journalist covers the news for the public interest and society, they should not be punished or imprisoned,” Savan said.

Gunmen shot and killed a prominent Rohingya Muslim leader in a refugee camp in southern Bangladesh on Wednesday, a United Nations spokesperson and a local police official said, following months of worsening violence in the world's largest refugee settlement. Mohib Ullah, who was in his late 40s, led one of the largest of several community groups to emerge since more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar after a military crackdown in August 2017. Invited to the White House and to speak to the UN Human Rights Council, he was one of the most high-profile advocates for the Rohingya, a Muslim minority that has faced persecution for generations.

Rafiqul Islam, a deputy police superintendent in the nearby town of Cox's Bazar, told Reuters by phone that Mohib Ullah had been shot dead but had no additional details.

A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the agency was "deeply saddened" by the killing of Mohib Ullah. "We are in continuous contact with law enforcement authorities in charge of maintaining peace and security in the camps," the spokesperson said. Mohib Ullah's group, the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, made its name documenting atrocities the Rohingya suffered during the Myanmar crackdown, which the UN has said was carried out with genocidal intent. At the Bangladesh refugee camps, Mohib Ullah went from hut to hut to build a tally of killings, rape and arson that was shared with international investigators. His organization worked to give refugees more of a voice inside the camps and internationally. Speaking to the UN Human Rights Council, he said the Rohingya wanted more of a say over their own future. But his high profile made him a target of hardliners and he received death threats, he told Reuters in 2019. "If I die, I'm fine. I will give my life," he said at the time. The sprawling camps in Bangladesh have become increasingly violent, residents say, with armed men vying for power, kidnapping critics, and warning women against breaking conservative Islamic norms.

Aung Kyaw Moe, a Rohingya civil society activist and an adviser to Myanmar's National Unity Government, the parallel civilian government established after February's coup, said Mohib Ullah's death was a "big loss for the Rohingya community." "He was always aware there is a threat, but he thinks that despite the threat if he is not doing the work he is doing, no one else would," he said.

National security police in Hong Kong have frozen the assets of a group that organized vigils for Tiananmen massacre victims, as the city's public broadcaster was warned on Wednesday that its reporting must 'safeguard national interests.'

"This morning, the liquidator of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, Mr. Cheng Yiu-cheong, received a notice from the national security police notifying him that all of the Alliance's assets, including those of the June 4th Memorial Hall, were frozen," the Alliance said in a post on its Facebook page on Wednesday.

National security police officers took Cheng Yiu-chang to the June 4th Memorial Hall and handed him the letter of notification, the group said.

"Cheng expressed surprise and disagreement with the [move]," it said, adding that Cheng planned to go to the national security police headquarters to request the assets be unfrozen pending the dissolution of the group.

The Alliance voted to disband at an extraordinary general meeting on Sept. 25, following an investigation by Hong Kong's national security police under a law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020.

The Alliance stands accused of acting as the agent of a foreign power, with leaders Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho, and Lee Cheuk-yan arrested on suspicion of "incitement to subvert state power," and the group's assets frozen under the national security law.

At a special general meeting held at the June 4th Memorial Hall under heavy police watch in Mong Kok district, members voted 41-4 to disband after 32 years of supporting victims of the Tiananmen killings, demanding accountability, and advocating for an end to one-party rule.

The national security law ushered in an ongoing and citywide crackdown on all forms of public dissent and political opposition, with election rules changed to ensure only pro-CCP candidates can run and with the government insisting that further legislation on espionage is needed to continue the crackdown on what Beijing insists was an attempt by hostile foreign powers to foment a "color revolution" in Hong Kong.

Journalists warned

Government broadcaster RTHK on Wednesday issued a new set of guidelines to its staff, warning them that their work must always serve China's national interests, on pain of disciplinary action.

Journalists have also been warned to be careful what they say on social media, "to protect the station's integrity and reputation," RTHK reported on its English-language news page.

The rules mean that opposition or critical voices are likely to be unwelcome on RTHK programs.

“Under no circumstances should our programs provide a platform to encourage, incite, promote, glorify, endorse, or sympathize with any act or activity endangering national security or otherwise contain any contents which are contrary to the interests of national security," the station quoted the guidelines as saying.

RTHK programs must not provoke or deepen hatred, discrimination, or hostility towards the central government or the Hong Kong government, the rules say.

Staff must also avoid any contact with foreign governments or political organizations, and should take at face value Beijing's territorial claim on the democratic island of Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China.

In an apparent reference to reporting linked to the 2019 protest movement, staff must make sure they don't sympathize with, justify or glamorize "criminal acts."

'Inciting secession'

The warnings came as a former protester stood trial under the national security law in Hong Kong's District Court, for "inciting secession."

Ma Chun-man, known by his nickname Captain America 2.0, is accused of inciting others to commit secession by shouting "Hong Kong independence is the only solution," and "Free Hong Kong, revolution now!" at protests and in shopping malls between August and November 2020.

Motorcyclist Tong Ying-kit was jailed for nine years in July for "inciting secession" and "terrorism" after he flew a flag with the "Free Hong Kong, revolution now!" slogan while riding his bike at a protest against the national security law on July 1, 2020, the day it took effect.

National security police have also charged seven other people including a 16-year-old with "conspiracy to incite the commission by other persons of the offence of subversion."

The group, aged 16-25, are members of the pro-independence group Returning Valiant, and were arrested in July on suspicion of terrorism and amid allegations of a bomb plot.

A professor and popular Vietnamese dissident said Thursday that he has received death threats by phone after publishing a series of social media posts criticizing the use of China’s coronavirus vaccines in Vietnam.

Mac Van Trang, known for his critical voice on sociopolitical issues in Vietnam, said he received threatening calls after he posted stories on the Chinese vaccines on his Facebook page, including a letter he wrote to the Ho Chi Minh City leaders, advising them not to accept millions of doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.

“One recent evening, an anonymous man called me on the phone, saying that I shouldn’t keep talking about it and should behave myself; otherwise I would put my life in danger,” Trang told RFA. “He also said that people are dying, and it’s good to have vaccines, and it would be a crime to prevent it. Therefore, I should mind my tongue!”

Vietnam is experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases with the spread of the more contagious Delta variant, and large areas of the country of more than 98 million people have been under lockdown. Only about seven percent of Vietnamese adults have been fully vaccinated. On Thursday, Vietnam reported a total 728,435 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including nearly 9,500 news ones, and more than 18,000 deaths with 236 new fatalities.

Earlier this week, the Ministry of Health decided to allocate an additional 8 million doses of China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Van Thinh Phat Group to 25 cities and provinces, the country’s Tuoi Tre News reported.

But citizens throughout the country have expressed concern, fearing the Sinopharm doses might produce hidden side effects, Ngo Tri Long, former rector of the Ministry of Finance’s Price and Market Research Institute, told RFA in an earlier report.

Trang, 83, was a long-term member of the Communist Party of Vietnam, but he resigned on Oct. 26, 2018, when the party decided to discipline Chu Hao, a well-known intellectual who criticized the government. Trang currently lives in Ho Chi Minh City and posts critiques of sociopolitical issues on his Facebook page.

It was not the first time that he had received such calls, Trang said, adding that threats were made after he spoke out about sensitive incidents in Vietnam, including a deadly land-rights dispute in January 2020. At that time, about 3,000 security officers raided a hamlet in Dong Tam commune to intervene in a long-running dispute over a military airport construction site about 25 miles south of Vietnam’s capital Hanoi.

“In our society, there are many people who have been indoctrinated for a long time that whatever contradicts the [Communist] Party’s policy and guidelines is considered hostile,” he said of the threats he has received.

“From the general secretary, prime minister, and president to others in the government, they always talk about enemies and hostile forces,” Trang said. “This has created a dangerous mindset among party fanatics who exist when the party exists, and who see anyone who criticizes it as a hostile force.”

In addition to the 8 million new shots, Vietnam has received roughly 50 million vaccine doses, including 20 million Sinopharm doses — more than six million of which were donated by China and five million of which were purchased by Ho Chi Minh City, Tuoi Tre News said.

Before the new allocation, 5.5 million Sinopharm vaccine doses had been administered to people in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Quang Ninh province, Hai Phong city, Binh Duong province, and Dong Nai province, the report said.

Vietnam’s President Nguyen Xuan Phuc traveled to Havana last weekend for an official visit, where he met with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and finalized a deal for Vietnam to buy 10 million doses of Cuba’s Abdala vaccine.

Italy has also promised to donate 800,000 doses of the British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine to Vietnam, raising Rome’s commitment to Hanoi to over 1.6 million doses through the COVAX program co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; the World Health Organization; and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have applied to arrest a human rights lawyer after holding him under residential surveillance for six months, his friend told RFA.

Rights lawyer Zhou Xiaoyun, who formerly worked as a senior editor at the cutting-edge Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper in Guangzhou, was initially detained by police in the northeastern province of Liaoning around six months ago on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

He was held incommunicado under RSDL, residential surveillance at a designated location, but now that the six-month limit has been reached, police have applied to the state prosecutor's office for approval of his arrest, a friend of Zhou's who gave only the surname Lu said.

Police in Guangdong's Panshan county submitted the arrest application to the local procuratorate on Sept. 26, Lu said.

He said Zhou was being victimized by the Liaoning police.

"They sent the case to the Panshan county procuratorate on the 26th, to apply for his arrest," Lu said. "It's not clear which leader is in charge, but it is being handled, at least on the face of things, by the Panshan county police, and in actuality by the Panjin municipal police department."

Zhou had met with his lawyer twice during the past week, as well as receiving a visit from his sister, he said.

A veteran lawyer who gave only the surname Zhang said Zhou will remain in detention after his time in "residential surveillance at a designated location (RSDL)" expires if the application is approved.

"This is what used to be called criminal detention, and it requires the approval of the procuratorate for a formal arrest," Zhang said. "This is a critical juncture, because if the procuratorate approves the arrest, it means at the very least that they believe Zhou committed a crime which should be investigated and which deserves a prison sentence."

"[That means they think] he should remain in detention," he said.

Repeated calls to the Panjin municipal police department and to the Panshan country procuratorate rang unanswered during office hours on Tuesday.

Re-educating the media

The CCP is in the process of "re-educating" its already tightly controlled state media, requiring hundreds of thousands of journalists to sit an exam on the political thought of general secretary Xi Jinping to qualify for a new generation of official press cards.

The process started with a 2014 requirement for journalists to study Marxism, and followed up by Xi in 2016, when he warned during visits to state media organizations that state media are part of the CCP family.

All media operating in China must safeguard the authority of the Communist Party central committee, and adhere to "the correct direction" in forming public opinion, Xi said at the time.

Meanwhile, Xu Yan, wife of jailed human rights attorney Yu Wensheng said he has yet to receive adequate medical and dental treatment in Nanjing Prison, where he is serving a four-year sentence after being convicted of "incitement to subvert state power" by a court in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

Family members have long suspected that Yu has been tortured and ill-treated while in custody, as he only has limited use of his right hand, and is unable to write, brush his teeth, or harvest crops as part of prison labor.

He was named as a finalist for the Martin Ennals Award honoring human rights defenders earlier this year.

The Martin Ennals Foundation called him "one of the best-known and most intrepid human rights activists" in China, acknowledging that Yu has been subjected to arbitrary detention, a secret trial, and the removal of his license to practice law.

Bangladesh authorities must immediately drop their investigations into the bank accounts of 12 members of the press and commit to allowing the media to operate freely and independently, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On August 11, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, a government agency responsible for investigating money laundering and terrorist financing, ordered all scheduled banks to provide details of any accounts associated with Rozina Islam, a senior correspondent for the daily newspaper Prothom Alo, according to news reports and a person familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal. Islam is under investigation for allegedly photographing documents at the country’s Health Ministry without permission.

“Scheduled banks” refer to the 61 banks that are controlled and supervised by the government-owned Central Bank of Bangladesh.

Separately, on September 16, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit ordered banks to provide such information for an additional 11 journalists, according to various news reports and Muhammad Abdullah, city editor of The Daily Amardesh and president of a group within the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app. The 11 journalists named in the September 16 order are also all executive members of several different journalist trade organizations, according to those news reports.

Authorities have not disclosed any reason for the order targeting those journalists, according to Abdullah, who said the reason behind the probe remains unclear.

“The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit’s investigation of the bank accounts belonging to a dozen prominent journalists looks suspiciously like selective law enforcement aimed at intimidating the independent press,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities should immediately drop these investigations, cease harassing journalists, and commit to allowing the media to operate openly and freely.”

According to the news reports and Abdullah, the 11 journalists are:

Farida Yasmin, senior subeditor of the privately owned Bengali-language newspaper The Daily Ittefaq and president of the National Press Club of Bangladesh
Elias Khan, special correspondent with the privately owned news outlet The Daily Amardesh—which has been prevented from publishing a print edition since 2013 and whose website was blocked domestically in 2020—and general secretary of the National Press Club of Bangladesh
Kader Gani Chowdhury, senior reporter with The Daily Amardesh and president of a group within the Dhaka Union of Journalists
Muhammad Abdullah, city editor of The Daily Amardesh and president of a group within the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists
Mohammad Shahidul Islam, subeditor of the privately owned Bengali-language daily newspaper The Daily Sangram and general secretary of a group within the Dhaka Union of Journalists
Sajjad Alam Khan Tapu, business editor of the privately owned news channel Jamuna TV and president of a group within the Dhaka Union of Journalists
Nurul Amin Rokon, news editor of the privately owned Bengali-language daily newspaper Daily Asia Bani and secretary general of a group within the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists
Molla Jalal, editor of the privately owned Bengali-language news website NNB and president of a group within the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists
Abdul Majid, special correspondent of the privately owned Bengali-language daily newspaper The Daily Samakal and secretary general of a group within the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists
Mursalin Nomani, senior reporter with the state-owned news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha and president of Dhaka Reporters Unity, a local journalist training and press freedom group
Mosiur Rahman Khan, senior reporter with The Daily Samakal and general secretary of Dhaka Reporters Unity

Hasan Mahmud, the minister of information and broadcasting, told reporters at his office that the government can ask anyone for their bank details, and “if someone is transparent, there’s no reason to be worried about it,” according to The Dhaka Tribune.

The person familiar with Islam’s case said the August 11 order stemmed from an ongoing investigation by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police into a complaint filed by the country’s Health Ministry. On May 17, authorities arrested Islam for allegedly taking pictures of official documents at its Dhaka office, as CPJ documented at the time. She was released on bail on May 23, according to reports.

Islam has frequently reported on alleged corruption and mismanagement of the health sector’s COVID-19 response.

The ministry accused Islam of violating Sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act and Sections 379 and 411 of the penal code; if charged and convicted, she could face up to 14 years in prison or the death penalty, according to those laws.

On September 19, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka rejected Islam’s request for the return of her two mobile phones and press identification card, which were seized during her arrest, and her passport, which was seized as a condition of her release on bail, according to news reports and the person familiar with the case.

Health Minister Zahid Malek did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment regarding Islam’s case sent via email.

CPJ emailed Md. Masud Biswas, executive director of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit; Md. Shafiqul Islam, commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police; and Ferdousi Shahriar, the deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Bangladesh in Washington, D.C., for comment on the 12 investigations, but did not receive any replies.

Student activist Panupong Jadnok has once again been detained after being denied bail on a royal defamation charge filed against him by a royalist activist for a Facebook post about monarchy reform.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported on Thursday (23 September) that Panupong met with the public prosecutor in the morning. He was informed that the public prosecutor had decided to indict him and he was taken to court.

His lawyer later filed a bail request for Panupong, but the request was denied. The order was signed by judge Chanathip Muanpawong, Deputy Chief Justice of the Criminal Court, who earlier this year denied bail to several pro-democracy activists detained pending trial.

Chanathip is also the judge who sentenced Ampon Tangnoppakul, or “Uncle SMS,” to 20 years in prison on a royal defamation charge under Section 112 in 2011, after Ampon was accused of sending messages to Somkiat Krongwattanasuk, who was at the time the secretary of then Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, which were deemed offensive to the King and Queen. Ampon died in prison.

Panupong has been charged with royal defamation under Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code, or the lèse majesté law, and with entering into a computer system data which is an offense to national security under Section 14 of the Computer Crimes Act. The charge is based on a complaint filed against him by Nangnoi Atsawakittikorn, member of the royalist group Thailand Help Center for Cyberbullying Victims, which has filed similar complaints against several other activists and netizens.

The complaint was based on a Facebook post on 8 November 2020 which said “Do you think that you will look dignified standing on the ruins of democracy or on the corpses of the people?” along with the hashtag #ปฏิรูปสถาบันกษัตริย์ (#MonarchyReform). The original post also reportedly refers to the King by name.

On 15 September, Panupong was released from the Thanyaburi Remand Prison, where he was detained on charges relating to a protest in front of the Border Patrol Police Region 1 headquarters on 2 August 2021 to demand the release of 32 detained activists. He is now being detained at the Bangkok Remand Prison.

According to TLHR, Panupong is currently facing 9 charges under Section 112; he has already been indicted on 3. He was previously detained pending trial on charges relating to the 19 September 2020 protest, and was in detention for 86 days before being released on 1 June 2021.

Police officers shot and arrested a 24-year-old political activist and detained his mother from their home in Bago on Thursday, according to local sources.

At around 10pm, junta police came to Zayar Aungmyay St in Bago’s Hinthagone 19th ward in two unmarked vehicles to arrest activist Sithu Kaung Myat, a well-known and active protester in local anti-coup demonstrations.

The policemen opened fire when it appeared that Sithu Kaung Myat was trying to run away, a local man said.

“They shot the young man three times in front of his mother when he was trying to escape. He was shot in his chest,” the man told Myanmar Now.

He added that Sithu Kaung Myat was on the second floor of the house when he was shot, while his mother was on the ground floor.

The police handcuffed the 50-year-old woman, who the source said has been in poor health, and raided the home.

"After the shooting, his mother was handcuffed and taken into a car. The young man had not been carried away at that time,” the man explained. “They ransacked the house and took their belongings, including a motorcycle that they wanted. Then the boy was taken into the car.”

Sithu Kaung Myat was admitted to the Bago General Hospital for gunshot wounds to the chest that he suffered when troops came to arrest him from his home on Zayar Aungmyay St in Hinthagone 19th ward at around 10pm.

Sithu Kaung Myat’s 50-year-old mother was also arrested on Thursday and was still in jail at the time of reporting. Police cordoned off the family’s home at around 2pm on Friday, around one hour after her son’s death, a local told Myanmar Now.

“They don’t have other relatives—it is only a mother and a son. She has no other relatives so nobody helped to get her released,” the local said. “People in that ward don’t know who they should ask for help. They don’t know where she has been detained.”

After locals visited the hospital and inquired about his condition, they learned that he had died on Friday afternoon.

It was not known at the time of reporting if or how a funeral would be held for Sithu Kaung Myat, who ​​was an active protester in local anti-coup demonstrations.

Myanmar Now tried to contact the local police station to inquire about the shooting and the continued detention of Sithu Kaung Myat’s mother—who, it is believed, is in poor health—but the calls went unanswered.

Since the February 1 coup, the junta has frequently held the relatives of targeted politicians and activists hostage when troops have been unable to locate the individual they intended to arrest.

More than 1,000 civilians have been killed and nearly 7,000 continue to be imprisoned by the coup regime, according to data released by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) on Friday.

The junta has declared the AAPP an illegal organisation and rejected their data as exaggerated.

Systematic death threats, attacks, and killings of human rights defenders have been rampant across Afghanistan even prior to the withdrawal of US troops. This includes those working in civil society organizations or NGOs- that is, anyone who individually or with others act to promote or protect human rights in a peaceful manner. Since the capture of Kabul by the Taliban on 15 August 2021, the lives of thousands of women and men who had risked their safety to promote and defend human rights, gender equality, rule of law, and democratic freedoms in their country are now, more than ever, hanging by a thread. While it is now almost impossible to carry out any human rights work, attacks on human rights defenders have reportedly been on the rise without any sign of abating. Since 15 August, the Taliban and armed groups have engaged in large-scale door-to-door searches, forcing human rights defenders into hiding, and moving clandestinely from one place to another. Meanwhile, escalating violence in the provinces has forced a large number of defenders to leave their home and internally relocate to Kabul. Human rights defenders were also beaten up by the Taliban. Yet very few are willing to publicly denounce the attacks for fear of further reprisals. This demonstrates the climate of fear under which Afghan defenders are now forced to live and are trying to escape.

On 7 September 2021, Omid Sharifi and Bashir Ahmad Bayat, community-based defenders, were shot by the Taliban during a protest and later died for the injuries in Herat, Afghanistan.

Bangladesh authorities must immediately drop all charges against journalists Kabir Kishore, Tasneem Khalil, and Shafiqul Islam Kajol, and cease harassing members of the press under the draconian Digital Security Act, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On September 8 and 12, the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal accepted Digital Security Act charges against Kishore, a cartoonist; Khalil, editor of the Sweden-based news website Netra News; and Kajol, a photographer and editor with the Daily Pakkhakal magazine, according to multiple news reports and a person familiar with the cases, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal by Bangladesh authorities.

Kishore and Kajol are currently free on bail, according to those sources. Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Khalil, who lives in Sweden, the journalist told CPJ in a phone interview.

Khalil said that the Bangladesh government did not inform him of the warrant, and he heard about it in the news. Bangladesh authorities have blocked domestic connections to Netra News since December 2019, according to Khalil and CPJ’s documentation from the time.

“The Bangladesh government must immediately cease its legal harassment of journalists Kabir Kishore, Tasneem Khalil, and Shafiqul Islam Kajol, who are being persecuted for their political commentary,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must drop all charges against them, stop harassing journalists in retaliation for their work, and repeal the draconian Digital Security Act, which enables these legal abuses.”

The Dhaka Cyber Tribunal accepted a charge sheet against Kajol on September 8, stemming from a criminal defamation complaint filed against him and dozens of others in March 2020 by Saifuzzaman Shikhor, a member of parliament with the ruling Awami League political party, according to various news reports, the person familiar with the case, and CPJ research, which said that two other people affiliated with the Awami League also filed two additional complaints against Kajol at that time.

The complaints cited Kajol’s critical writing on Facebook about local political leaders, and accused him of “publishing false news and circulating it on social media,” according to those sources. CPJ was unable to review Kajol’s Facebook posts, which have been taken down or set to private.

Kajol was charged under sections of the Digital Security Act pertaining to transmission or publication of offensive, false, or threatening information; unauthorized collection of identity information without lawful authority; publication or transmission of defamatory information; and publication or transmission of information that creates enmity, hatred, or hostility between different classes or communities of society, according to person familiar with the case and the charge sheet, which CPJ reviewed.

If convicted, each of those charges can carry a prison sentence between three and seven years, and a fine from 300,000 to 500,000 taka (US $3,517 to $5,861), according to the law. The next hearing in his case is scheduled for October 20, according to news reports and the person familiar with the case.

CPJ emailed and texted Shikhor at the address and phone number listed on his website, but received error messages in response. CPJ emailed the office of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who also serves as president of the Awami League, for comment, but did not immediately receive any reply.

Separately, on September 12, the cyber tribunal accepted charges submitted by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of the detective branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police against Kishore, Khalil, and five others, according to various news reports and the person familiar with the cases.

The charges stem from a police report alleging that Kishore and five others ran a Facebook page that criticized the government; that Khalil made derogatory comments about government officials on his Facebook page; and that Khalil also “instigated” Kishore to “make anti-state rumours go viral on social media,” according to CPJ research and a report by Netra News.

In March, Kishore told CPJ that, during his previous detention as part of this case, unidentified men beat, abused, and tortured him while asking about his cartoons. CPJ has called on the Bangladesh government to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations of torture.

Kishore and Khalil were charged under sections of the Digital Security Act pertaining to the publication of propaganda against the liberation war of Bangladesh or national symbols; transmission or publication of offensive, false, or threatening information; publication of content that creates enmity, hatred, or hostility among different classes or communities; and abetment of an offense, according to the person familiar with their cases, who reviewed the charge sheet.

Those charges can carry prison sentences between three and ten years and fines of 300,000 to 10,000,000 taka (US $3,517 to $117,207), according to the law.

The next hearing in Kishore and Khalil’s cases is scheduled for September 30, according to the person familiar with the case.

CPJ contacted Khandaker Al Moyeen, the director of the legal and media wing of the Rapid Action Battalion, which opened the investigation into Kishore and Khalil in May 2020, via messaging app for comment, but did not receive any response. CPJ also contacted Mohammad Rassell Mollah, the investigating officer who submitted the charge sheet against Kajol, via messaging app for comment, but did not receive any response.

CPJ also emailed Md. Shafiqul Islam, commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, for comment on all three cases, but did not receive any reply.

A female civil society activist in southern Kandahar province said the Taliban entered her house, assaulted her and abducted five people from her home.

The incident took place in limits of 15th police district on Saturday night.

Dr. Fahima Rahmati, who is also the head of the Hope Foundation, in a live video message on Facebook while loudly crying provided information about the incident.

She told Pajhwok Afghan News that dozens of armed Taliban entered their house without permission and started beating women, men and firing in the air.

She added the Taliban had abducted five men, including her two brothers, a brother in law and a neighbor. According to her, her elder brother was shot wounded by the Taliban.

She said only her elder brother worked in the former National Directorate of Security but he had left the job six months ago for personal reasons.

The Taliban have announced a general amnesty, so why they intimidate people, she grumbled.

Rahmati to Taliban: “Why are you spreading terror? Is government done this way, why are you forcing me to flee the country? Does Islam allow such acts? I received invitations from three countries, but I rejected them and said the country needs me.”

Kandahar’s intelligence chief, Rahmatullah Naraiwal, said the Taliban had received information last night that former NDS operatives were residing in a house in Kandahar’s 15th police district.

He added that as soon as they reached the house, they came under fire from the house after which Taliban fighters overpowered them and arrest the men and took them away.

But Fahima Rahmati denied the allegations, saying they did not even have a single bullet in the house.

Her brother had been given a Kalashnikov and a pistol for self-defense during his job but after leaving the job six months ago he handed over the weapons to the concerned authorities.

Pakistan: Police baton-charged students protesting against online entrance exams.

Mao Hermitanio’s face was wet and red when she reached Liwasang Bonifacio this afternoon, Sept. 21, the 49th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law. She and her colleagues played cat and mouse with the Manila police. The chase, however, was not at all fun.

Hermitanio, deputy secretary general of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), and her companions assembled at around 1:30 p.m. on Carriedo street, where they were prohibited by the police from holding a program. The contingent, composed mainly of farmers, workers, youth and urban poor, decided to go to Sta. Cruz Church. After a short program, they started marching toward Liwasang Bonifacio. The police blocked them from setting foot on the bridge, and dispersed them with water canon.

Amid the chaos, former Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao and Kilusang Mayo Uno Secretary General Jerome Adonis tried to negotiate with the police, but the latter refused to even identify their ground commander. The protesters then dispersed, and found ways, literally, to get to the site of the protest.

A few meters away from Liwasang Bonifacio, former Gabriela Women’s Party Liza Maza was also blocked several times by policemen in fatigue. She tried to cross the underpass from the Metropolitan Theater but was prevented from proceeding. She walked along the Jones bridge, hoping she would be finally allowed to join the other activists. Policemen told her and her colleagues they could not pass through. Asked for a reason, a policeman just said, “That’s the order.”

Fuming, Maza told the media in Filipino, “I remember when I was still in college, when lighting rallies were still prohibited during Martial Law. The people were not allowed to express themselves freely just like what is happening now.”

“Everything came back to me. I was just waiting for someone to shout, ‘Marcos, Diktator! Tuta!Duterte at Marcos, parehong-pareho ang pakana,’” (Marcos, Dictator! Puppet! Duterte and Marcos have the same tactics.) she said.

Eventually, Maza and hundreds of other protesters managed to hurdle the obstacles.

“On the anniversary of Martial Law, they tried to suppress the rights of the people to peaceably assemble and to free expression,” Obet de Castro of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said in a Facebook post in Filipino hours after the protest. “Duterte is so much like Marcos. And just as how the Filipino people toppled the Marcos dictatorship, the corrupt and fascist in Malacañang failed to stop the militant action of the Filipino people earlier today.”

Marcos-level corruption, tyranny

Progressive groups denounced what they called as Duterte’s Marcosian tactics.

In his speech, Antonio La Viña, former dean of the Ateneo School of Government, said Duterte proves to be similar to Marcos when it comes to corruption and tyranny. He cited the purchase of overpriced pandemic items from Pharmaly, and the killings of activists and drug suspects.

Renato Reyes Jr., BAYAN secretary general, meanwhile, called on fellow protesters to make their choices clear in the coming elections.

“We reject everything that is destructive to the country. We reject those who act as dictators, the son of the dictator, and the lackeys of dictators. We reject corruption, killings, apathy and subservience to foreign interests,” Reyes said in Filipino.

Former ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio, who represented 1Sambayan, said the Filipino people should “unite in restoring democracy back.”

Hong Kong police on Monday arrested three members of the Student Politicism group on subversion charges under a draconian national security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), accusing its members of trying to bring down the regime.

Among the arrestees were convenor Wong Yat-chin and secretary general Chan Chi-sum, the group said in a brief statement on its Facebook page.

The Hong Kong Baptist University student union editorial board named the third arrestee as Jessica Chu, a former spokesperson for Student Politicism who is no longer a member of the group, according to a screenshot posted to Twitter by Agence France-Presse correspondent Xinqi Su.

Police confirmed they had arrested three suspects aged between 18 and 20 for carrying out "subversive acts" including warning people not to use the government's LeaveHomeSafe COVID-19 tracking app, and "inciting hatred of the government" via street booths.

Wong was shown in media footage posted by the Oriental Daily news website, being led away in handcuffs from the group's headquarters in Kwai Chung district, and being taken away in an unmarked grey people carrier.

National security police raided the premises, seizing boxes of goods intended for prison inmates, including chocolates, sanitary products, and crackers, Hong Kong-based translator KTse852 said via their Twitter account.

Senior police superintendent Steve Li told reporters that the group had been imposing its political beliefs on others, and inciting them to overthrow the governments of Hong Kong and mainland China.

Li said the group's goal in sending goods to inmates was to enlist them to aid these efforts, and accused him of exhorting followers to "practice martial arts for when the revolution comes."

"That ... is clearly resistance aimed at the Hong Kong authorities and the CCP government," Li said, accusing the group of intensifying its political activism with street booths in Mong Kok.

The national security law, which has ushered in a city-wide crackdown on peaceful protest and political opposition since it took effect on July 1, 2020, criminalizes contact with and funding from overseas politicians and foundations, public criticism of the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities, as well as opposition activism, which is deemed a bid to overthrow the existing political order.

Forty-seven former democratic lawmakers and activists are currently awaiting trial on "subversion" charges under the national security law after taking part in a democratic primary in 2020 that was designed to maximize the number of LegCo seats won by the opposition.

The targeting of Student Politicism comes after prisoner support group Wall-fare announced it would disband after secretary for security and former police chief Chris Tang accused "certain groups" of endangering national security" in prisons by writing to inmates and "soliciting followers" with gifts of chocolates, hairpins, and other items, making them "hate the government."

It was the latest in a line of civil society groups to disband following public denunciation by officials or by CCP-backed media.

Feminist journalist Sophia Huang and fellow activist Wang Jianbing are incommunicado, believed detained, ahead of Huang's planned departure to study overseas, the Chinese rights group Weiquanwang reported on Tuesday.

Huang had planned to leave China via Hong Kong on Sept. 20 for the U.K., where she planned to take a master's degree in development with a prestigious Chevening Scholarship, the Weiquanwang report said.

Wang, who is a labor and healthcare rights activist, had planned to see her off on her journey, it said.

"According to people familiar with the matter, Wang Jianbing may have been detained under investigation for incitement to subvert state power, mainly due to the daily gatherings of friends at his home," Weiquanwang said, adding that both activists had been incommunicado since Sept. 19.

Repeated calls and messages to Huang's cell phone went unanswered on Tuesday.

Sources told RFA the pair had likely been detained by police in their home district of Haizhu.

An officer who answered the phone at the Haizhu district police department in Guangzhou declined to confirm the report.

"Who? I've never heard of those people," the officer said. "If you believe they are being dealt with, then the relatives need to wait for notification."

"The case officers will only contact [the family]."

Veteran political journalist Gao Yu said Huang's detention may be short-lived, and only intended to prevent her from leaving for the U.K.

"The kind of persecution that his happening now is worse than at any other time ... even when they were going after the 'rightists' they didn't just arrest people on a whim," she said.

"It's unbelievable right now ... they regard these young journalists and non-government organizations as the enemy," she said. "The methods they are using are persecutory and despicable, and without any basis in law."

U.S.-based legal scholar Teng Biao said "disappearances" are increasingly being used by the CCP to suppress any form of dissent or rights activism.

"They keep lowering the threshold for the kinds of people they will persecute," Teng said. "There is now no longer room for activities that may have been tolerated in the past."

Survey of harassment, assaults

Before being targeted by the authorities in 2019, Huang had been an outspoken member of the country's #MeToo movement, and had carried out a survey of sexual harassment and assault cases among Chinese women working in journalism.

Huang was present at a million-strong protest in Hong Kong on June 9, 2019 against plans to allow extradition to mainland China, and was detained for "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" in October 2019, before being released on bail in January 2020, a status that often involves ongoing surveillance and restrictions on a person's activities.

Her travel documents were also confiscated after her return, preventing her from beginning a law degree in Hong Kong the fall of 2019.

Huang had previously assisted in the investigation and reporting of a number of high-profile sexual harassment allegations against professors at Peking University, Wuhan University of Technology, Henan University and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.

Wang started to work in rural development after graduating in 2005, before joining the Guangzhou Gongmin NGO in 2014 and director and coordinator for youth work.

In 2018, he started advocacy and legal support work on behalf of workers with occupational diseases, and was a vocal supporter of China's #MeToo movement.

Environmentalist Chhorn Phalla has been arrested by Ratanakiri police after they called him in to update the address on his identification card, his lawyer said.

An arrest warrant against Phalla had been issued in February for allegedly clearing forest land for ownership, but both his lawyer and wife said he had been called in for an administrative update.

Phalla, 42, has previously told VOD that he has been involved in protecting forests since 2016, and since 2017 he has filed eight lawsuits against local officials and villagers he accuses of being involved in encroaching on community forests. He has said that authorities have taken no action on any of his complaints.

In July last year, he was beaten by a group of people at a public forum where he questioned how authorities were allowing forestry crimes to happen under their jurisdictions, he has said. Authorities accused him of disrupting the forum, then stood and watched as people beat him, he has alleged.

Kham Salong, Phalla’s wife, said her husband was arrested at Lumphat district’s Seda commune police station at 11:22 a.m. on Monday after the couple arrived to update the address on their ID cards.

“I feel really sad,” Salong said. “They previously beat him up, and now they come to arrest him. I want to ask the court to release my husband. He is not guilty of anything.”

Phalla’s lawyer, Sam Tith Seiha, said his client had been asked to go to the police station to update his ID, and that he would try to speak to him in prison.

Keo Pheadey, deputy prosecutor and spokesman for the Ratanakiri Provincial Court, could not be reached.

Ny Sokha, president of rights group Adhoc, said authorities must be clear before arresting anyone, and said he had doubts about the forestry charges against him.

“We ask the Ratanakiri Provincial Court to consider dropping or revoking the arrest warrant for Chhorn Phalla and release him, do not accuse him further and release him, do not detain him because he did not commit a crime like the one in the lawsuit or the charges.”

A Hong Kong group that once campaigned for China's embattled human rights lawyers announced on Tuesday it would disband after being investigated by national security police under a city-wide crackdown on public dissent and peaceful opposition.

The China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG) said in a statement on its website that it had received a letter of enquiry from the Hong Kong Police dated Aug. 25, 2021.

"The CHRLCG has decided to dissolve in September 2021 and has already activated the voluntary liquidation procedure," the statement said.

"Directors of the CHRLCG are going to resign from their directorships soon."

The group is the latest in string of civil society groups to disband following investigation by national security police.

The pro-democracy Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) will vote on Oct. 3 on whether to disband after being denounced in the Beijing-backed media, a typical precursor to investigation under the national security law.

The denunciations usually focus on accusations that a given activist group or non-government organization has done something that could be in breach of the law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020.

Several organizations, including protest march organizers the Civil Human Rights Front, the Professional Teachers' Union, and Wall-fare, a prison support group for those in custody because of the 2019 protest movement, have disbanded following similar articles, or after being criticized by Hong Kong's leaders.

And the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance said it had recently received a letter from the Registry of Trade Unions alleging that its funds were used for "political purposes."

Three are denied bail

The CHRLCG's decision to disband came as three activists linked to the Hong Kong activist group Student Politicism were denied bail on Tuesday following their arrest on subversion charges under a draconian national security law.

West Kowloon Court principal magistrate Don So rejected bail applications from lawyers acting for group convenor Wong Yat-chin, 20, and former members Chan Chi-sum, 20 and Jessica Chu, 18.

The trio embraced each other and cried in court when they heard bail had been denied, with the case adjourned until November following a request from the prosecution.

Judge So said he didn't believe the defendants would refrain from further actions "endangering national security" if they were released, meaning that the trio will now spend the Mid-Autumn Festival in jail instead of with their families.

Wong and Chan said they would reapply every eight days, while Chu waived her right to further bail hearings.

Their supporters also hugged each other, or wiped away tears when the decision was announced, while others chanted "release political prisoners!" and "Inhumane!"

Wong said in a message posted to social media by his lawyer that his fate was perhaps the result of the times Hongkongers are now living through.

"I hope we can all live bravely and openly, so we can face this together," Wong said. "[Let's] face fear, challenge fear, and conquer fear."

He also told people to "take care of themselves" and enjoy the Mid-Autumn Festival.

According to the indictment, Wong, Chan, and Chu conspired with others in Hong Kong to "organize, plan, implement or participate in acts of force, or the threat to use force, or other illegal means to subvert state power, namely, to overthrow or undermine the current political system of the People's Republic of China ... and overthrow the central government or the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government."

Their alleged actions dated from Oct. 25, 2020 to June 16, 2021, it said.

'Subversive acts'

Police had early alleged the trio had carried out "subversive acts" including warning people not to use the government's LeaveHomeSafe COVID-19 tracking app, and "inciting hatred of the government" via street booths.

Meanwhile, the host of an English-language talk show for government broadcaster RTHK was reportedly pulled from the show following an episode focusing on the ongoing crackdown on civil society groups under the national security law.

"Backchat" co-host Hugh Chiverton confirmed to Stand News on Tuesday that he was still at the station, but hasn't been heard on air since the civil society episode, which hasn't yet been uploaded to the archive section of the RTHK website.

The episode had featured former City University politics lecturer and pro-democracy activist Joseph Cheng.

Chiverton referred all queries about the show to RTHK's communications team, who told the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) that it wouldn't comment on "internal editorial matters of individual programmes."

"RTHK reviews the programme content from time to time to ensure compliance with RTHK Charter, the Producers' Guidelines and the Communications Authority's Codes of Practice," it said in a statement posted to Twitter by HKFP.

Chiverton and Koh had earlier interviewed Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam about the national security crackdown, during which Lam warned Koh that she was "treading on dangerous lines" after the host asked her about the government's failure to communicate with protesters during the 2019 anti-extradition movement.

Activists say they fear for the life of a students’ union chairperson after she was detained by junta forces on Sunday afternoon while travelling on a long distance bus.

Aye Nandar Soe, 21, was stopped and arrested at the Yadanabon bridge connecting Mandalay and Sagaing regions. She leads the students’ union at the Sagaing University of Education, where she is in her fourth year of studies.

Her friends say her whereabouts are unknown and believe she was arrested because of her opposition to the military’s February coup. Her detention comes as the junta steps up its crackdown against student and youth activists across the country.

The junta has not made a public announcement about Aye Nandar Soe’s arrest or the grounds on which she is being detained. Many other student activists who were detained recently have been charged with incitement.

“Our comrade Aye Nandar Soe is being detained… but we still do not know where she is being held,” the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), of which Aye Nandar Soe’s union is a member, said in a statement.

“We fear for our comrade Aye Nandar Soe's life and safety,” the statement said.

An ABFSU spokesperson said he had no information about where she was travelling when she was detained.

The military has stepped up arrests of anti-junta student activists in recent weeks, but the exact number detained is unknown, the spokesperson added.

“Many students from the ABFSU and other students’ unions were arrested, but the ones who were not will continue to revolt against the military,” he told Myanmar Now.

On Sunday three young activists, including two members of the ABFSU, were detained in Yangon and accused of being involved in bank robberies to fund armed resistance against the junta.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 1,122 people have now been killed by the junta and 6,698 others are in detention.

Pakistani activists say police have raided a camp set up by landmine victims in the northwestern tribal district of South Waziristan.

Sherzada Mehsud of the civil rights Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) told RFE/RL that one of its leaders was injured during the raid on September 21.

The protesters later blocked the road between the Makin and Tank areas calling for the head of the local police station be suspended.

South Waziristan police chief Shaukat Ali said he was investigating the case and that he will later share details with the media.

Several landmine victims and civil rights activists have staged a sit-in in the Kotki area of South Waziristan for more than two weeks, calling on the authorities to clear landmines and provide financial assistance and jobs to those wounded by the weapons, as well as compensation to the families of those killed.

Thousands of South Waziristan residents have returned to their homes after a Pakistani military offensive against Islamist militants forced them to abandon them in 2009.

Pakistani security forces say they have begun operations to clear South Waziristan and other tribal areas of landmines that have claimed lives or seriously wounded hundreds of people.

At first, it seemed like a regular commute home for Mohammad Ali Ahmadi. The Kabul-based journalist was riding a city van home Saturday evening after leaving work at a radio station.

Sitting in the middle seat of the Toyota TownAce, Ahmadi sensed nothing out of the ordinary about the other passengers, just regular commuters shooting the breeze about the latest developments in the Afghan capital.

Then the passenger next him — a man who Ahmadi said was bearded and in his early 30s — asked what he did for a living.

"I'm a reporter," Ahmadi responded.

"What television station do you work for?" the man asked.

"I don't work for a television station," Ahmadi said. "I work for Radio Salam Watandar."

"Oh, the American radio station?" the man asked.

Ahmadi explained that the station was a local radio network and not American, he told VOA. The man, saying nothing, signaled for the driver to drop him at the next stop.

As the passenger stepped out of the van, he pulled out a gun. Without uttering a word, he fired several shots at Ahmadi. Two struck the journalist in the leg.

"It was so sudden and so loud, for a second I thought it was a suicide explosion or something," Ahmadi said. "It took me some time to realize I'd been hit."

The gunman fled, the other passengers scurried out of the van and the driver left.

Bleeding heavily, Ahmadi lay on the side of the street. A passerby finally came to his aid, using a scarf as a tourniquet to stanch the bleeding.

"I was still conscious, and I was able to call my family," Ahmadi told VOA on Tuesday, in an interview from the hospital.

The gunman has not been identified. Ahmadi and his network both said it was unclear which group, if any, the man was affiliated with.

Nasir Maimanagy, managing director of Salam Watandar Radio Network, told VOA that the station reported the attack to the Taliban, who denied responsibility and promised to investigate

"We demanded that they investigate this thoroughly as it's a crime and it happened under their watch," Maimanagy said in an email to VOA.

Still, the shooting "has sent a strong wave of fear down the spine of every single employee of (Salam Watandar)," Maimanagy said.

"They are shocked and afraid," he said. "They feel that soon they will be targeted and much worse might await them. Ahmadi was fired at five times and only two of them hit him. He is lucky to have survived."

The shooting is one of several violent incidents directed at the media since the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15.

The Taliban detained and later released at least 14 journalists covering protests on September 7 and 8, according to media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists. At least nine were subjected to violence during their arrests or detention.

Salam Watandar reporter Shakib Siavash was among those detained and beaten for covering a protest.

Two of those detained, Etilaatroz photographer Nematullah Naqdi and reporter Taqi Daryabi, recalled how they had been beaten and kicked for hours while in custody.

The Taliban have said they would investigate the beatings.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has said all media outlets "will be free" as long as they operate within the bounds of Islamic law, known as Shariah, and promote national unity.

During their previous rule over Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban banned all independent media outlets. Over the next two decades, under Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government, hundreds of independent radio and TV stations, including Salam Watandar, operated in the country.

Despite the Taliban's pledge to respect press freedom, dozens of news outlets have shut down, and thousands of journalists have tried to leave the country.

The International Federation of Journalists estimates that at least 153 Afghan media organizations have stopped operating since the Taliban takeover.

Those outlets that have continued are adapting their tone and content to avoid running afoul of the Taliban, according to Salam Watandar journalist Ahmadi.

In a September 16 appeal sent to Reporters Without Borders, a group of more than 100 Afghan journalists — nearly all still working in Afghanistan — called for "a campaign on behalf of press freedom in our country, for the preservation of the gains of the past 20 years, including media independence, pluralism and the protection of journalists."

"Despite public undertakings by the Taliban, we see concrete signs of an undeclared general crackdown that includes threats to journalists in the field, intimidation of news media and indirect censorship," the anonymous journalists wrote.

So far, Salam Watandar has not had to make dramatic changes, Ahmadi said.

Established in the early 2000s by Internews, a California-based media development organization, Salam Watandar distributes news and other programming to a network of independent stations around Afghanistan.

"I felt that if things were left as they were, it would not be a huge difference from the past (for us)," Ahmadi said. "Unless, of course, if they change the laws and impose new restrictions on us. In which case, we'd have to change professions or leave the country."

But the gun attack has changed how Ahmadi feels about his own safety.

Once optimistic, Ahmadi, who graduated from journalism school in 2014 and has since worked as a reporter and editor at several news outlets, says the shooting was a turning point.

"My priority at the moment is to get better, to recover my health," Ahmadi said from his hospital bed at the Italian-supported emergency hospital in Kabul. "I didn't want to leave the country before, but after this incident, I've come to the conclusion that my life is no longer safe here."

Hong Kong’s national security chief recently accused the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), an affiliate of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), of having political preferences and receiving foreign funding. The IFJ expresses grave concern over the official’s remarks and urges the Hong Kong authorities to respect HKJA members’ freedom of association.

Speaking with reporters on September 15, Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung accused the HKJA of having biased political views and thus favouring pro-democracy news organisations such as Apple Daily and Stand News. He also claimed that the HKJA may have received funds provided by foreign political groups, without providing evidence.

Tang urged the HKJA to disclose its membership list and financial status in order to “prove its innocence” and “assuage public concerns.”

In response, HKJA Chairman Ronson Chan saidthe HKJA does not receive funding from overseas groups and has submitted its financial statements annually to the Labour Department, which oversees trade unions, according to Hong Kong’s law.

The group also said it cannot disclose the personal data of its members without their consent. “Any suggestion to make our membership and their employers public in order to ‘assuage doubts’ would appear to incite a breach of the Ordinance,” the HKJA said in a statement, referring to the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.

In addition, during an interview with local newspaper Ta Kung Pao on September 14, Tang stated that the HKJA is “relying on a large number of student members.” He said the group’s executive committee has been controlled by members of specific media outlets over the years. The situation “makes people question the representativeness of the HKJA” as a journalist trade union, Tang said.

The HKJA said there is no truth to Tang’s comments; as of September 15, the HKJA has 486 members, 56 of whom are students majoring in journalism. This number translates to approximately 11 per cent. A list of HKJA executive committee members is also available on the HKJA website, it added.

Student activist Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul was arrested on Wednesday (22 September) and charged with sedition due to her involvement with the Facebook page of the student activist group United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration (UFTD).

Panusaya was arrested at around 12.30 at her home. She went live on her personal Facebook profile and said that she was returning home and about to attend an online class when plainclothes officers from the Technological Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) approached her and presented an arrest warrant. She said that the officers had likely followed her car and ran up to her as soon as she got out.

The arrest warrant was issued by the Criminal Court and signed by judge Sakda Phraisan. It stated that Panusaya is charged with sedition under Section 116 of the Thai Criminal Code and with entering into a computer system data which is an offense to national security under Section 14 of the Computer Crimes Act.

Panusaya continued live broadcasting via the Facebook profile of student activist Watcharakorn Chaikaew, another UFTD member. During the live broadcast, she asked the officers if she could go inside the house to use the bathroom, but the officers refused and told her to wait for an inspector to arrive.

After an investigation inspector from Huai Khwang Police Station and other officers arrived to serve the warrant on Panusaya , she and her friends were taken to the TCSD headquarters in a police van. The officers told Panusaya and her lawyer, who was on the phone with her, that they have already filed a temporary detention request and wanted to bring her to the TCSD headquarters as soon as possible so that her lawyer has enough time to file a bail request.

Panusaya initially wanted to wait for the arrival of Boonlert Wisetpreecha, lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University, before going to the TCSD headquarters. However, the officers tried to persuade her to leave quickly as her lawyer is already on the way to the TCSD headquarters, so Panusaya and her friends left in the police van without waiting for the lecturer.

She also asked why the police did not issue a summons before arresting her, but the officers said they did not know and are only doing their job by arresting her.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that the charges against Panusaya were the result of a complaint filed by Nopadol Prompasit, a member of the Thailand Help Center for Cyberbullying Victims, an online royalist group whose members have filed numerous lèse majesté charges against many netizens and activists, including Parit Chiwarak and Anon Nampa.

Nopadol accused Panusaya of running the UFTD’s Facebook page and inciting people to join anti-government demonstrations, which he said risked the spread of Covid-19 and were not peaceful.

TLHR also said that, according to the inquiry officer’s temporary detention request, the UFTD Facebook page contains what they consider to be seditious messages calling for people to rebel against the authorities, and accusations that police have used excessive force against protesters.

The request also stated that the inquiry officer is opposed to granting Panusaya bail, as the charges are related to national security and she might flee or tamper with evidence. Nevertheless, she was granted bail on 35,000 baht security.

The charges filed against Panusaya are the same as those filed against Niraphorn Onkhao, another UFTD member, who was arrested last Friday (17 September) during a police raid on the house she was staying with Panusaya and student activist Benja Apan. Niraphorn also never received a summons before being arrested.

Chief Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan lodged a defamation complaint against rights activists Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti on Wednesday over a video alleging business motive behind current security operations in Papua with Luhut’s involvement.

Luhut himself came to the Jakarta Police headquarters to report the case and “defend my name and that of my children and grandchildren”.

The retired army general said he made the decision after his two attempts to demand public clarification and apology from the two activists went unanswered.

"They didn’t respond during the two occasions, prompting us to take legal action under both criminal and civil laws," Luhut told reporters.

"There is no such thing as absolute freedom, everything has a consequence. I have the right to defend my rights. I have asked them to present evidence [on the allegation] and there was none,” he added.

In the video published on Haris’ YouTube account last month, he interviewed Fatia, who is the coordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (Kontras), an NGO focusing on human rights issues.

Both discussed allegations that the current military operation in Papua was actually meant to protect mining businesses in the easternmost province.

Fatia implied that mining company Toba Sejahtera Group, in which Luhut is a shareholder, had mining projects in the district of Intan Jaya, Papua.

“It’s fair to say that Luhut has a role in mining businesses in Papua,” Fatia said in the podcast video.

“The core of human rights problems in Papua is militarism. And it turns out that behind the militarism approach – supposedly to restore security and peace in Papua – there are economic motives.”

At one point of the talk show, both activists called the minister “Lord Luhut”.

In an interview with Kompas TV earlier this month, Haris said he had responded to the reprimand by inviting Juniver Girsang, an attorney for Luhut, to become a guest in his podcast and present Luhut’s views to ensure a fair exchange of opinions.

In the same interview, Juniver said his client had no slightest interest in attending and increasing views and revenues of a podcast program that already insulted him in public.

The Jakarta Globe has reached Haris for comments.

In a separate news conference, a lawyer representing both activists said Luhut as a state official is not immune from criticism.

“If he cannot be criticized, there will be no voice of the people. Once we lost people’s voice, democracy is gone,” lawyer Asfinawati said.

“Fatia criticized Luhut in his capacity as a state official, nothing is personal,” she added.

Luhut’s attorney meanwhile said that in addition to the criminal suit, he also planned to file a Rp 100 billion ($7 million) civil case against the activists.

“If judges accept the lawsuit, the Rp 100 billion money will be donated to the Papuan people,” Juniver said.

It’s not the first time a close aide of President Joko Widodo involved in a feud with activists that led to legal motions.

On August 20, Presidential Office Chief of Staff Moeldoko filed a defamation complaint against two Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) activists over allegations that the former military chief had cashed in on the distribution of Covid-19 medication Ivermectin and misused authority to join in rice export program.

Seng Sary. who had clarified that he does not support forming a government in exile but merely laid out hypothetical conditions for one, told RFA’s Khmer Service Monday it was a good sign that Hun Sen is listening to the opinions of analysts and intellectuals, but he did not feel completely safe yet.

“I have not seen the court drop my case yet, so it is difficult for me to decide whether I should return to Cambodia, because it has to do with my safety,” Seng Sary said.

“I hope I can get my charges dropped soon,” he said.

Seng Sary said he was fortunate to be in Thailand when Hun Sen ordered his arrest. Otherwise, he would never have been able to escape or explain to Hun Sen the meaning of his analysis.

“I hope that in the future, the head of government will more carefully consider posts on social media… Let the government have a high understanding of contradictory views or political views that people want express.”

Political analyst Kim Sok, who lives in exile in Finland, said that Seng Sary is right to remain in Thailand and act with caution about anything Hun Sen says.

“He did request that the court revoke Seng Sary’s arrest warrant, but who knows? When Seng Sary returns to Cambodia and if he is arrested, Hun Sen could say he only made the request to cancel the arrest order, but it is up to the court because the court is independent. So be careful with this game,” Kim Sok said.

RFA was unable to reach Justice Ministry spokesman Chin Malin for comment on Hun Sen's stance. The spokesman for the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, Plang Sophal was also not available.

Chak Sopheap, the Executive Director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, welcomed the suspension of the arrest warrant and urged the government to be more open to intellectuals and political analysts.

“There must be a guarantee of full freedom of expression, and there should be no indictment or arrest just because citizens are expressing their opinions,” she said.

Some Facebook users wrote in support of Hun Sen’s change of heart, while others pointed out that the Cambodian leader has broken promises to activists in exile, saying they could return to the country without fear of arrest, but arresting them anyway.

The exchange with Seng Sary came a little than a week after Hun Sen Hun Sen crashed a Zoom strategy session of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, which Hun Sen had banned in 2017.

“I wanted to send a clear message to the rebels that there are people of Hun Sen everywhere,” the prime minister said of his intervention in the Zoom call.

About the Human Rights Defenders: Mr. Gigraj Verma is a resident of the village Joharli in Sikar district of Rajasthan. He is a human rights defender and has worked with Dalit communities in the region for several years and has been active in getting legal help and representation for Dalit victims of atrocities. He has also worked with several organisations such as CORO India and Action Aid in programmes and projects aimed at empowering Dalit and marginalized communities. Background of the Incident: Mr. Verma helped victims of Dalit atrocities register cases against the perpetrators with relevant sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. In this year, for instance, he has helped with the registration of three such FIRs: No 375/2021 with the Neem Ka Thana police station, FIR 391/2021 with the Ajitgadh police station and FIR 228/2021 with the Neem Ka Thana police station. The persons against whom the FIRs were registered belong to the dominant caste group in the region. Details of the Incident: Around 8 PM on August 20, 2021, Mr. Verma was at his residence along with his family when a group of approximately 8-10 persons comprising members of the Gurjar caste surrounded his residence. They were armed with sticks, axes and other weapons and had arrived with the intent to kill the HRD. The crowd initially hurled casteist abused on the HRD and his family. Hearing the abuses, the HRD called the police station multiple times during this period. Inspector Mr. Kastoor Verma was present at the police station and attended the call. Despite informing him of the crowd outside his home and the gravity of the situation, no help was sent immediately. The HRD and his sisters went outside and saw the group, who were armed. The group then beat up the HRD and his sisters. They even snatched the HRD’s gold chain and took it away with them while leaving. They also threatened to kill the HRD, if he were to leave his home. Hearing the commotion, neighbours of the HRD came out of their homes, and the group left the HRD. The HRD and his family went back to their home. A larger group, of around 18-20 persons of the Gurjar caste, returned around 8.30 PM and tried to break the HRD’s door. The HRD and his family then shouted for help. Hearing their plea, residents of his village came to help. Seeing the villagers come out of their homes, the assailants stopped their attempt to break in but openly threatened the family with death if they left their home. Around 8.45 PM, the HRD called the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mr. Girdhari Lal Sharma and the Superintendent of Police Mr. Kuwar Rastradeep. The police finally arrived after 10 PM. According to the HRD, the police even went to the homes of the persons whom he had identified but did not arrest them. The police returned. The HRD then went to the Neem Ka Thana police station along with others around 11.30 PM and stayed there. They found the Inspector Mr. Verma to be in an inebriated state and the HRD even posted about this on Twitter tagging the Sikar Police’s Twitter handle. The HRD’s complaint was filed at the Neem Ka Thana police station the same night, which was then registered as an FIR (No. 0411/2021) at 2.36 AM on August 21, 2021. In his statement, the HRD was able to identify 18 people in the group that attacked him and his family and stated there were 7-8 people he did not know. The police applied sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 379 (theft), 504 (intentional insult to prove breach of peace) of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989: Section 3(1)(r) – Intentionally insults or humiliates in any place within public view, Section 3(1)(s) – Deliberately insults or humiliates by caste name in public view and Section 3(2)(va). No arrests have made in the case yet. On August 21, 2021, an FIR was registered (FIR No. 0375/2021) against the HRD and two others (Vinod Saini and Sarjeet Mahrania) by the police at the Neem Ka Thana police station. The FIR has been registered by Mukesh Kumar, a constable at the police station. The HRD and others were charged under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant), 353 (assaults or use of criminal force on a public servant), 342 (wrongfully confining a person), 341 (wrongful restraint), 188 (disobedience to order by public servant), 269 (Negligent act known to be likely to spread infection of any disease dangerous to life), 270 (malignant act which may spread disease), 186 (obstructing public servant), 189 (threat of injury to public servant). The FIR states that the HRD along with 50-60 people sat outside the police station and blocked the gate stating that they would not leave the premises until the perpetrators were arrested and they resorted to crowding, pushing, and shoving as well as told the police officials that they would not be allowed to leave until the perpetrators were arrested. The HRD and along with others were protesting outside the police station due to the inaction of the police in registering a complaint and arresting the members identified by Mr. Verma in the group that assaulted him and his family. The FIR registered by the police states that the HRD and others started their protest started at 10 AM on August 21, 2021. Police officials had nearly eight hours to initiate immediate action against members of the group, which prompted a protest from the HRD and others. The HRD and the others were only demanding that the police take swift action against the crime. The quantum of punishment that the sections in the FIR against the HRD is as much if not more than the punishment laid down in the sections that the perpetrators of the caste atrocity have been charged with.

Following the addition of two more names to the list of 54 journalists and media workers currently held in the military junta’s jails in Myanmar, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reminds the international community of the need for targeted sanctions against those responsible for the growing terror.

Mizzima News former editor-in-chief Myo Thant was arrested yesterday in Kangye Htaung, a township in southwestern Myanmar’s Irrawaddy River delta region. RSF has learned that the security forces went to the township after being told he was there, and threatened to take his aunt if he did not surrender. He was finally arrested at round 8 pm.

Officials from the Sintgaing central police station charged a detained ex-journalist with incitement on Wednesday for allegedly violating Section 505a of the penal code.

Thirty-five-year-old Win Naing Oo, who formerly worked as a chief correspondent for Channel Mandalay, was arrested along with his wife Thu Thu from a mango farm in Mandalay’s Sintgaing Township on August 31, according to a family friend. Thu Thu was reportedly released on Thursday evening.

Win Naing Oo stopped working in journalism after Myanmar’s February 1 military coup.

“He hasn’t done any journalism work during this time. I don’t know why he was arrested,” the friend told Myanmar Now.

Myanmar Now called the Sintgaing police station for further information on the case. The officer on duty said that Win Naing Oo was being held there and confirmed that he had been charged under Section 505a.

A Sintgaing local said that the couple had been living at the mango farm where they were arrested, but that they may not have been the junta’s initial target.

“The police were there to arrest their guest. They were arrested along with the guest,” said the local, who did not elaborate on the guest’s identity.

Win Naing Oo was previously charged with defamation in May 2019 after he was accused of violating Section 66d of Myanmar’s Telecommunications Law for broadcasting a news story on Channel Mandalay regarding military confiscation of farmland near Pyin Oo Lwin.

More than 100 journalists have been arrested since the coup, and many of them charged with violating 505a. Few have been released. Many have been sentenced in closed court hearings, with convictions for violating the statute carrying a prison term of up to three years.

At least 6,572 people have been arrested by the junta since the coup, according to a statement released by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners on Thursday.

Kazakh police have detained at least six activists during a protest organized by the unregistered Democratic Party of Kazakhstan in the southeastern city of Almaty.

Dozens of protesters participated in the rally, chanting for Nursultan Nazarbaev, the former authoritarian president who is still considered to rule the country from behind the scenes, to “go away.”

The demonstrators demanded the release of political prisoners, condemned the government's plan to use a Russian company to digitalize some state systems, and expressed solidarity with oppressed Muslim minorities in China's northwestern Xinjiang region.

The Democratic Party was legally registered by the Justice Ministry in December 2020, but the group was unable to hold a Congress in February because party activists had been arrested and detained.

Kazakh law requires that a party's founding congress be attended by at least 1,000 people.

Kazakhstan has been run along authoritarian lines by Nazarbaev and his successor, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, since gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

During their rule many opposition figures have been jailed or forced to flee the country.

On September 7, the Uttar Pradesh police filed an FIR against journalist Rana Ayyub at the Indirapuram police station. It was based on a complaint by Vikas Sankrityayan, co-founder of Hindu IT Cell, a Hindu supremacist group with a talent for targeted harassment.

Sankrityayan accused Ayyub of “illegally acquiring money from the general public in the name of charity” on Ketto, a crowdfunding website. He added that the Washington Post opinion writer violated the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010, or FCRA, because she was a “journalist by profession” and was “receiving foreign money without any approval certificate or registration from the government”.

Ayyub was booked under four sections of the Indian Penal Code dealing with dishonest misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust and cheating. She was also booked under section 66D of the IT Act, which criminalises cheating by personation, section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

The journalist has raised money for three relief campaigns on Ketto since early 2020 for those affected by Covid, floods and the migrant crisis caused by last year’s lockdown. In an email on August 27, 2021, Ketto told donors of Ayyub’s campaigns that she had raised Rs 2.69 crore, of which she spent Rs 1.25 crore and would pay Rs 90 lakh in taxes.

“The balance funds, after these debts, are still retained by the campaigner,” the platform said, adding that the collection was being investigated by “Indian law enforcement” agencies which suspected that the funds "were not utilised for the purpose for which they were raised”.

Ketto did not disclose if the law enforcement agencies had given the platform any evidence to support the allegations. A questionnaire sent to Varun Sheth, the founder and CEO of Ketto, did not elicit a response.

This is not the first FIR filed against Ayyub this year. In June, the Ghaziabad police booked her for tweeting out a Muslim man’s allegations of assault by a Hindu mob. She had moved the Bombay High Court and obtained protection from arrest for four weeks.

In a Twitter statement on Sunday, Ayyub called the latest FIR “baseless” and “malicious” and maintained that the “entire donation received through Ketto is accounted for and not a single paisa has been misused”.

She implied that the money from the fundraisers had gone into her personal account. “The receipt of donations did not violate any law,” the journalist added. “My accounts and the donations have both been scrutinised by the IT department, and a fair investigation will bring out the truth for all.”

Locus standi?

In his complaint to the Ghaziabad police, Sankrityayan didn’t claim to be an aggrieved party, that is, he did not say he had donated money to Ayyub’s fundraisers and, so, had stakes in the alleged FCRA violation.

We contacted Sankrityayan for clarification, but he wouldn’t comment. “Newslaundry is a biased, anti-Hindu news portal,” he declared. “I’m not going to talk to you.”

He, however, told the Print that he had found “proof” for his police complaint.

We put the same question to Abhay Kumar Mishra, the circle officer at the Indirapuram police station. “You should pose this query to the complainant,” he replied. “I can’t comment on whether he is an affected party. We are investigating the case.”

‘There are two violations’

According to lawyer Vikas Pahwa, Ayyub’s fundraisers violated the FCRA on two counts. “First, she did not have a registration certificate from the government,” Pahwa said. “And she seems to have accepted the funds in her personal account.”

Section 11 of the FCRA states that no person can accept foreign contributions unless they “obtain a certificate of registration or prior permission of the central government”.

Pooja Madhan, a chartered accountant at the Delhi firm Pooja Jagdish and Associates, told Newslaundry that FCRA applies to individuals . “As per section 2(1)(m) of the FCRA, “person” includes “an individual”, so the provisions of the FCRA also apply to an individual”, she said, adding that Ayyub was not eligible to receive foreign contributions if she wasn’t registered under the FCRA.

In her statement, Ayyub did not state whether she had prior permission to accept funds from foreign donors, or whether she was registered under the law. Newslaundry reached out to Ayyub as well as her lawyer Vrinda Grover for comment. Ayyub did not respond, and Grover declined to comment.

The FCRA, Pahwa said, was designed to give the government control over foreign contributions. “It crystallises a couple of things,” the lawyer explained, “that if you receive a foreign contribution you have to put it in a special account that the state can monitor. You can’t put it in your personal account. You also cannot transfer that contribution to anyone else.”

On the other point of the controversy – of funds remaining unused in the journalist’s account – Pahwa said the FCRA was silent. “If a person accepts foreign contributions for a particular purpose and a part of it is achieved, it does not mean that the person is under an obligation to return the contribution,” he noted. “He or she can still continue to work on the same lines, especially if the objective is public service.”

As for likely punishment for a violation, section 35 of the FCRA prescribes an “imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both”. “‘Or’ is an important word here,” Pahwa explained. “It is not an ‘and’. The court will not necessarily imprison a violator. It has the option of only imposing a fine.”

‘Enough to initiate proceedings’

Anshu Bhanot, a commercial litigator, told Newslaundry that the way Ayyub raised the money would enable the Indian law enforcement agencies to initiate legal proceedings against her. “The moment money from foreign donors comes into a personal account, only the account holder has control over it,” Bhanot explained. “Ayyub will have to explain what she did with the money. Whether the agencies are able to establish an FCRA violation would depend on the material presented in court.”

The onus to prove the money wasn’t misused, however, would be on Ayyub. “That is the sad part in the judicial system,” he said. “In criminal law the onus is on the prosecution. But the moment a proceeding is initiated, this becomes a theoretical aspect. Even if the case is ultimately quashed, there are no repercussions for bodies like the Enforcement Directorate, the Crime Branch, and there are few precedents for it.”

Sarwar Raza, an advocate who specialises in taxation law and FCRA, said Ayyub could not be charged with violating the law if the donors were Indian citizens living abroad. It would count as a violation only if they were foreign citizens.

“If she accepted the money in personal capacity and was not associated with an NGO with an FCRA licence or did not have prior permission from the government, then there is probably some kind of violation,” he said. “It would help her case if she doesn’t utilise a single rupee from the collections anymore. It would be seen as a bonafide step.”

‘FCRA violations are compoundable’

In May this year, Ayyub announced on Ketto that she had tried to tie up with an Indian NGO that had FCRA permissions. “But owing to restrictions on physical movement during the pandemic and the lockdowns,” she wrote, “we have not been able to find a suitable donor to trust to channelize the benevolence.”

She also declared that her team would be returning the money from foreign donors because of the “hit jobs by propaganda websites targeting our relief work”. “To make sure we do not cause inconvenience to the donors and us,” she added, “I have decided to refund all contributions from foreign donors back to those who donated.”

Raza said Ayyub’s pledge to return money to foreign donors was a sensible decision. “FCRA violations are compoundable,” he explained. “If she has violated any provision, the fact that she claims to have returned the money makes a case for compounding the matter. If your action has violated a law and you undo the act, it can be condoned if you pay a penalty. But the discretion will rest with the government.”

For Bhanot, returning funds to foreign donors would not absolve Ayyub of alleged wrongdoing. “It could be a tricky stand as the courts might interpret this as an admission of guilt or a desperate measure to wriggle out from the criminal liability.”

Anand Mangnale, the former director of Our Democracy, an online crowdfunding platform, said if Ayyub transferred the collections to her own account, she would have to pay taxes. “Even if you’re a journalist, if you pay taxes on the money you raised and explain how you spent it, then it is not a violation of FCRA,” Mangnale said. “The email Ketto sent to her donors, however, claimed she had unspent money in her bank account – and that is a triggering point.”

In her statement, Ayyub said she had paid a “heavy amount of tax on the donations”, directed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, or CBDT.

Madhan, however, told Newslaundry paying tax on the money would not make a difference. “Since FCRA and Income Tax Act are different laws, paying income tax on foreign contributions will not suo moto lead to complying with FCRA provisions,” she said.

‘Ignorance of law’

According to Raza, FCRA violations were commonplace and often went unnoticed. “But with big amounts or big names, like Rana Ayyub, they won’t,” he said.

Section 3 of the FCRA specifically bars “correspondents”, “columnists”, “editors” of registered newspapers from accepting any foreign contribution. This also applies to “correspondents”, “columnists” and “editors” of a company “engaged in the production or broadcast of audio news or audio visual news or current affairs programmes through any electronic mode, or any other electronic form” as defined in the IT Act, 2000 or “any other mode of mass communication”.

Though this seemingly covers Ayyub, Raza said the journalist could still defend herself by arguing that she didn’t raise the money for any “journalistic activity”.

Raza pointed out that Vikas Sankrityayan, the complainant, wasn’t a donor in Ayyub’s campaign and so did not have a locus standi. “Ideally, it should have been the ministry of home affairs that initiated the proceeding, not an individual with no stakes in the matter,” the advocate said. “This can be an argument in court.”

But Bhanot disagreed. “Anybody can lodge a complaint and highlight an alleged wrongdoing,” he said. “The complainant in such matters would be more of an informant of the alleged offence, and not a complainant who would be allowed to intervene in the trial. In such FIRs, the state steps into the shoes of the complainant and takes over as prosecution.”

Pahwa, on the other hand, argued that Ayyub could defend herself on two counts. “One is the ignorance of law – a plea people make in such cases,” he said. “Rana Ayyub is a renowned journalist, so I don’t know if that plea would work for her. But she can also claim that she raised the money during Covid, when many were suffering and needed help. In those circumstances, she was out to provide aid rather than thinking about compliance with law.”

Hong Kong newspapers backed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) stepped up their denunciations of independent trade unions in the city on Friday, amid an ever-widening crackdown on civil society under the national security law.

The Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao newspapers on Friday reported that Hong Kong's pro-democracy Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) would be the next civil society group to disband following denunciations by CCP media.

"Our information indicates that the CTU will soon disband," the report said. "The executive committee met on Sept. 16 to pass the resolution, but it still needs to be formally approved at a general meeting on Oct. 3."

The report accused the CTU of prompting a "tsunami" of new union registrations during the 2019 protest movement, and of "promoting anti-Chinese sentiment and unrest."

"They have deviated utterly from the purpose of a trade union under the law, steal from industry, and divide society," the paper said, naming veteran labor activist Lee Cheuk-ying, who is currently serving a 14-month jail term for his role in the 2019 protest movement.

It also singled out Winnie Yu, the founder and chairwoman of the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance, a labor union representing Hospital Authority staff.

Political denunciations in CCP-backed media are increasingly being used to target civil society groups and NGOs in Hong Kong.

The denunciations usually focus on accusations that a given organization has done something that could be in breach of a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the CCP from July 1, 2020.

Several groups disband

Several organizations, including protest march organizers the Civil Human Rights Front, the Professional Teachers' Union, and Wall-fare, a prison support group for those in custody because of the 2019 protest movement, have disbanded following similar articles, or after being criticized by Hong Kong's leaders.

The Hospital Authority Employees Alliance said it had recently received a letter from the Registry of Trade Unions alleging that its funds were used for "political purposes."

The group's questioning of the effectiveness of Chinese-made COVID-19 jabs and the government's LeaveHomeSafe app, and its setting up of street booths were also listed as matters requiring explanation, government broadcaster RTHK reported.

"Our alliance's legal status and the past activities we organized, including the strike to fight for reasonable rights, should be protected by international covenants and the Basic Law," it quoted acting chairman David Chan as saying.

He declined to comment when asked if the alliance has any plans to disband, RTHK reported.

Meanwhile, another labor NGO, the Asia Monitor Resource Centre, said an article published in the CCP-backed Ta Kung Pao newspaper was inaccurate.

"For decades, we [have been] a civil society organization independent of any local or international organizations," it said. "We are not a subsidiary unit of any of the organizations as wrongly described in the Ta Kung Pao article."

The group said it plans to shut down its Hong Kong operations by the end of September and relocate elsewhere in the region.

"The pressure on our operation has intensified significantly," the group said in a statement on its website. "Therefore, we feel that we are left with no choice but to cease operating in Hong Kong by the end of September."

Pattern becoming clear

Chung Kim-wah, deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI), said the pattern of denunciation leading to investigation by the authorities is becoming increasingly clear in Hong Kong.

"We have seen so many similar occurrences, in which the Ta Kung Pao or the Wen Wei Po post articles listing [alleged] crimes, sometimes photos, and even stalking some people," Chung told RFA.

"Maybe the first thing the secretary for security does when he gets to work in the morning is look at the Wen Wei Po or Ta Kung Pao to see which groups they are targeting, and make a list," he said.

"It looks as if the [pro-CCP] media are running Hong Kong now."

Set up in 1990, the CTU sprang from the work of the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (HKCIC), a church-backed grassroots labor group active during the 1970s and 1980s.

A coalition of independent and politically unaffiliated union organizations, its membership consisted largely of white-collar unions organizing the civil service and professional or service employees in the public and subvented sectors, including the now-disbanded Professional Teachers' Union (PTU) and the Hong Kong Social Workers General Union.

Both former leaders Lau Chin-shek, a founding member of the Democratic Party, and Lee Cheuk-yan went on to be elected to the city's Legislative Council (LegCo).

The CTU was involved in a number of mass protest movements, including the July 1, 2003 march to oppose national security legislation, which was eventually imposed on the city by the CCP on July 1, 2020.

It was also instrumental in founding Hong Kong's Labour Party in 2005.

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has suspended the class licence of The Online Citizen (TOC) to run its website and its social media channels.

In a statement on Tuesday (Sept 14), IMDA said the socio-political website has repeatedly failed to comply with its legal obligation to declare all sources of funding since around the middle of last year.

TOC will be required to stop posting content on its website and social media channels immediately and disable them by 3pm on Thursday, IMDA said.

It added that if TOC continues to operate while in breach of the requirements, it may then take steps to block access to TOC in Singapore.

If TOC “does not provide further information to bring it into full compliance”, its class licence could be cancelled by Sept 28, said IMDA, adding that TOC’s officers may also be held liable for criminal offences under the Broadcasting Act.

“There is no reason for TOC not to comply, as other registered Internet content providers provide this information in order to be transparent about their sources of funding,” said IMDA.

TOC is one of two websites that are currently classified as registered Internet content providers (ICPs) by IMDA. The other is The Independent Singapore.

Past websites that had registered as ICPs include Six-Six News and The Middle Ground, both of which are no longer in operation.

Such websites, which provide content focused on political issues in Singapore and engage in online promotion or discussion of these issues, are required to declare their sources of funding.

"This is to prevent such sites from being controlled by foreign actors, or coming under the influence of foreign entities or funding, and to ensure that there is no foreign influence in domestic politics," IMDA said.

This requirement has been in place since 2013.

Mainstream news websites are not considered ICPs as they are regulated separately under the Broadcasting Act and the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act.

Under the regulations for ICPs, details on the sources of all funding must be declared by default and no foreign funding is allowed.

While subscription and advertising revenue from foreign sources are allowed if there is a clear commercial purpose, the sources must be declared and identified. IMDA said such sources of funding must not be used as a "loophole for foreign influence and funding".

It noted that TOC had offered a subscription framework under which those who paid a $120 yearly fee could have TOC write articles on a specified topic without having to declare their identity.

This is tantamount to allowing subscribers to commission content, which would require the full disclosure of the identity of the source, IMDA noted.

“This is a cause for concern as foreign actors can potentially use this mechanism to pay TOC to write articles that influence domestic politics,” it added.

IMDA said the legal entity TOC Pte Ltd first registered as an ICP in 2018 and declared its funding sources in accordance with the requirements. The Straits Times understands that the TOC website was operated by a different legal entity before 2018.

However, since 2019, TOC has not fully complied with this obligation, IMDA said.

The authority noted that TOC had failed to verify a donor and to clarify discrepancies in its foreign advertising revenue in its 2019 declaration, for which it was issued a warning on May 4 this year.

"For its 2020 declaration, TOC repeatedly failed to declare all its funding sources despite multiple reminders and extensions," IMDA said.

"TOC had also informed IMDA that it does not intend to comply with its obligations under the law."

TOC was then given a final opportunity to explain its non-compliance by Monday.

In its response to IMDA on Monday, TOC offered to make a declaration that it was not receiving foreign funding on the condition that the IMDA agrees not to seek further clarifications on its subscription framework and funding sources, the authority said.

But the requirement for TOC and other ICPs to declare their sources of funding is a legal one, and is not a matter for negotiation, said IMDA. It, therefore, rejected TOC's offer.

In a letter to IMDA posted on his Facebook page on Monday, lawyer Lim Tean of Carson Law Chambers, who represents TOC, said the discrepancies were "simple accounting mistakes".

He also accused IMDA of hypocrisy and inconsistency for allowing the Critical Spectator website and Facebook page to comment on Singapore affairs and politics despite it being run by a foreign commentator, Polish national Michael Petraeus.

Mr Lim added that TOC intends to challenge the suspension of its class licence by way of a judicial review.

Hari ini, Sabtu, 18 September 2021, sekitar pukul 05.00 pagi, kami mendapati salah satu bagian (sisi barat-pojok) teras kantor LBH Yogyakarta terdapat bekas seperti terbakar api. Bekas terbakar itu menyebar di beberapa sisi, yakni di lantai, tembok, kaca jendela, ventilasi hingga naik ke atas atap. Api sempat menyambar ke dalam kantor mengenai gorden. Di sekitarnya juga ditemukan serpihan kaca yang tampaknya adalah pecahan botol. Kami memperkirakan, kantor LBH Yogyakarta telah diserang dengan lemparan bom molotov oleh pihak yang tidak bertanggung jawab.

Terhadap peristiwa ini, kami ingin menyampaikan beberapa hal:

1. Berdasarkan informasi sementara yang kami himpun, kejadian ini kemungkinan berlangsung di atas pukul 01.00 (dini hari). Namun kami belum mengetahui siapa pelaku dan apa motifnya. Hanya saja kami menduga serangan ini terkait dengan pembelaan LBH Yogyakarta terhadap kasus-kasus struktural dan perkara masyarakat miskin lain. Saat ini upaya advokasi perkara tersebut sedang berjalan secara intensif, kami menduga ada oknum yang tidak senang dengan aktivitas bantuan hukum LBH Yogyakarta yang selama ini aktif mendampingi masyarakat kecil.

2. Kami menilai serangan ini adalah teror terhadap pembela hak asasi manusia sekaligus juga organisasi bantuan hukum, yang selama ini melakukan tugas-tugas konstitusional memberikan bantuan hukum kepada masyarakat miskin. Perbuatan pelaku bertentangan prinsip-prinsip negara hukum dan nilai-nilai hak asasi manusia.

3. Kami mengecam keras serangan ini. Tindakan ini adalah kejahatan pidana yang melanggar Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Pidana (KUHP). Oleh karena itu kami akan melaporkan peristiwa ini ke pihak yang berwajib (polisi) maupun lembaga-lembaga terkait.

4. Penting digarisbawahi, kami sama sekali tidak takut dengan teror. Kejadian ini justru menambah berlipat-lipat semangat kami untuk terus maju dan tidak pernah berhenti melakukan pembelaan serta memperjuangkan hak-hak dan kepentingan rakyat miskin korban ketidakadilan dalam kasus-kasus struktural.

Police arrested a university student on charges of sedition and computer crimes during a raid on a house used by student activists in Pathum Thani on Friday.

The search of the house at the Nuantong housing estate in Khlong Luang district on Friday morning was carried out by officers from the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD).

Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul and Benja Apan, two key figures in the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration (UFTD), normally stay at the house. Niraphorn Onkhao, a third-year liberal arts student at Thammasat University, was the only person in the house when the officers arrived.

Police said Ms Niraphorn was wanted on an arrest warrant issued on Wednesday by the Criminal Court on charges of violating Section 116 of the Criminal Code, or sedition, and the Computer Crime Act. The officers seized computers and mobile phones for further examination.

Ms Niraphorn was subsequently taken to the TCSD in Bangkok for interrogation. Officers were preparing to take her to the Criminal Court to seek her detention and would oppose bail, said Pol Col Pichet Khampeeranon, chief of TCSD sub-division 3.

Thai media reported that Ms Niraphorn protested during the arrest and insisted she had never received a summons. She reportedly told officers that the warrant they showed her did not mention any specific incident to justify her arrest.

The UFTD has been one of the main groups involved in political protests that began in mid-2020. The activists have been demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, a full rewrite of the constitution and reform of the monarchy.

More than 1,100 people have been prosecuted for political protests between July 2020 and August 2021, with more than 400 charged in August alone, the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights reported recently.

The organisation said it knew of at least 1,161 people who were being prosecuted for alleged crimes related to political gatherings and expression since the movement began on July 18, 2020.

Of the total, 143 are minors, aged under 18.

Just over 900 people faced charges of violating the emergency decree that was imposed to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. The group said 124 people were facing charges of lese majeste or defaming the monarchy under Section 112 of the Criminal Code, and 107 faced sedition charges under Section 116.

Hong Kong's national security police have ordered the organizers of a now-banned candlelight vigil for the victims of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen massacre to delete all of their online posts, the group said via its Facebook page on Thursday.

The Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China said it would comply with a national security police demand to remove all content from its website and social media accounts under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020.

"[We] received a letter from the police commissioner on Sept. 10 saying ... that implementation rules provide for the removal of specified messages from electronic platforms within seven days of receipt of notification," the Alliance said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

"[We] will remove all posts from our website, Facebook, and other specified electronic platforms by 10.00 pm tonight," it said.

The organization has been charged alongside three of its former leaders -- Lee Cheuk-yan, 64, Albert Ho, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 36 -- with "incitement to subvert state power" under the national security law.

Chow was arrested on Sept. 8 and denied bail, while Lee and Ho are already serving jail terms linked to their activism.

Four other Alliance members, Tang Ngok-kwan, 53, Simon Leung, 36, Chan To-wai, 57, and Tsui Hon-kwong, 72, have been charged with "failure to comply with a notice to provide information."

The group refused to provide detailed information on its members, activities, and funding sources to national security police, arguing that it isn't an agent of a foreign government, and therefore isn't bound by that part of the national security law.

"By arresting vigil organizers, Beijing and Hong Kong authorities are telling the world they’re not only afraid of the most peaceful protests, but also of their own brutal past," Human Rights Watch (HRW) China director Sophie Richardson said in a statement posted on the HRW website and signed by dozens of rights groups.

"They should end this political persecution and immediately drop the charges and release the vigil organizers," she said.

Call for targeted sanctions

The statement, signed by the U.S.-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, the Christian rights group ChinaAid, Humanitarian China and the U.K.-based Hong Kong Watch, among others, called on concerned governments to impose "coordinated, targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes," on Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, police chief Raymond Siu, secretary for security Chris Tang, and other officials linked to the operation targeting the Alliance.

"Hong Kong and mainland authorities should not be able to ban commemorations, shutter museums, and jail peaceful critics without paying a price," Citizen Power founder and veteran dissident Jianli Yang said.

"Governments appalled by the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in Hong Kong should make their opposition felt," Yang said.

The takedown order came as seven pro-democracy District Council members were stripped of their seats after their oaths were judged insufficient to prove their loyalty to Hong Kong and China.

Clarisse Yeung, Leung Pak-kin, Wei Siu-lik, So Yat-hang, Chan Wing-tai, Lai Tsz-yan, and Michael Pang were stripped of their council seats on Sept. 15, five days after they pledged allegiance at a ceremony for Hong Kong Island councilors.

"As the oath administrator had questions about the validity of the oaths taken by ... seven District Council members, letters were issued to the ... members concerned on Sept. 10 to require them to provide additional information," the government said in a statement announcing the disqualifications.

"After considering the written replies ... and all relevant information, the oath administrator ... determined that the oaths taken by seven District Council members were invalid," it said.

The councilors were removed from office with immediate effect.

Another peoples’ lawyer was killed Wednesday, Sept. 15.

Lawyer Juan Macababbad, Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) vice chairperson and member of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyer (NUPL), was shot by two gunmen in front of his residence in Surrallah, South Cotabato.

Macababbad was the third member of the NUPL and 58th lawyer who was gunned down under President Duterte’s administration.

“While the case may go through the usual investigation, as with the other growing number of unresolved cases, it is clear that the murder of Atty. Macababbad is connected to his vocation of lawyering for the people,” said UPLM Chairperson Antonio C. Azarcon in a statement.

Azarcon said Macababbad had been receiving death threats prior to the incident.

Defender of indigenous peoples, environment

Macababbad handled several cases, particularly in defense of indigenous peoples and protection of the environment.

He served as the legal counsel of the Lumad victims in the Lake Sebu massacre in 2017.

Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, said that Macababbad also joined several fact-finding mission and served as the legal counsel to indigenous peoples, teachers and community members in the SOCSKSARGEN.

“Such attacks against those in the legal profession, particularly against the committed and tireless human rights defenders among them, should stop. We demand justice for Atty. Macababbad and all lawyers killed under this administration,” Palabay said.

Macababbad was also one of those who opposed the coal mining applications of DM Consunji at the Daguma Mountain Range in the SOCCSKSARGEN region.

In 2015, Macababbad was slapped with Strategic Lawsuit Againt Public Participation (SLAPP) after “their local mass movements barricaded the aerial spraying facilities of Sumifru’s Banana plantation,” according to Leon Dulce, national coordinator for Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment.

“This is why it is urgent to enact policies such as House Bill 8170 or the Environmental Defense Bill that grants protection mechanisms and various remedies to human rights abuses against defenders. This is why we need to #DefendTheDefenders,” Leon added.

The groups demand justice for the slain lawyer.

“The climate of impunity pervades with the lack of serious investigation and prosecution over thousands of extrajudicial killings in the country. The legal profession is not spared, and our colleagues have become main targets especially those who resist tyranny and defend human rights,” Azarcon said.

Just last month, lawyer Rex JMA Fernandez was killed in Cebu City in broad daylight.

Different lawyers groups have been calling the Supreme Court to take action on the increasing attacks on the members of the judiciary.

Two more Kazakh activists have been sentenced to "restricted freedom," a parole-like sentence, for having links to the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement amid an ongoing crackdown on supporters of the opposition group and the associated Koshe (Street) party.

On September 15, a court in the southern city of Shymkent sentenced Lazzat Dosmambetova to 30 months of restricted freedom and barred her from involvement in public activities for five years after finding her guilty of the "creation of a branch of a banned group and taking part in its operations."

Dosmambetova rejected the charges as politically motivated and said she will appeal the court's decision.

The day before, a court in Nur-Sultan, the capital, sentenced activist Altyn Lesbaeva to two years of restricted freedom after convicting her of having links to the DVK and the Koshe party and propagating their ideas.

Lesbaeva was also barred from taking part in public activities for three years. She refused to admit guilt and vowed to appeal the ruling as well.

Many activists across the Central Asian country have been handed lengthy prison terms or parole-like "restricted freedom" sentences in recent years for their involvement in the activities of the DVK and Koshe, as well as for taking part in the rallies organized by the two groups.

DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan's BTA Bank and an outspoken critic of the government. The authorities labeled the DVK extremist and banned the group in March 2018.

Human rights groups have said Kazakhstan's law on public gatherings contradicts international standards, as it requires preliminary permission from the authorities to hold rallies and envisions prosecution for organizing and participating in unsanctioned rallies, even though the constitution guarantees citizens the right of free assembly.

The Enforcement Directorate Thursday conducted searches at offices and residential premises associated with social activist Harsh Mander, in connection with a case of alleged money laundering.

The ED’s case is based on another case registered by Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing against the Centre for Equity Studies (CES), where Mander is a director.

An ED official confirmed the agency was conducting searches at premises associated with Mander, but did not give details of the probe against him. The searches, sources said, were conducted at Adchini, Mehrauli and Vasant Kunj in South Delhi.

“Searches are going on. Our case is based on the Delhi Police FIR in the matter,” an ED official said.

Mander had left for Germany around 3.30 am on Thursday on a fellowship at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin. The board of the CES, in a statement, said they were committed to cooperating with the ongoing searches, and would provide all necessary information to the ED.

Delhi Police had registered two cases against CES — one under the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act and another over alleged financial irregularities — following a raid conducted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) last October at two children’s homes run by the centre. NCPCR had alleged various irregularities, including financial, in the running of the two homes at the time.

In July this year, in response to a petition in the Delhi High Court by CES, the NCPCR had said it had recommended action against the two children’s homes linked to Mander only after finding various violations and discrepancies on the part of the management. Among the alleged violations, NCPCR mentioned that it had been informed by the children that they were taken to protest sites, including Jantar Mantar.

“During the inspection, prima facie many violations of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and its Model Rules, 2016, and various other irregularities came to the notice of NCPCR, including financial irregularities as the institution was reluctant in disclosing their sources of funding and other relevant document to the inspection team,” NCPCR said in the reply.

With regard to the boys’ home, the NCPCR told the court that an employee had “informed” it about cases of child sexual abuse being reported there, and inaction by the management.

“The Commission observed this to be a gross violation of the provisions of the POCSO Act, 2012, and had immediately reported this to Delhi Police for further investigation as well,” it said.

In a statement, the CES board said the ED search was “a continuation of harassment and coercion of CES and Harsh Mander for being an outspoken and passionate defender of human rights”.

It said, “As you are aware, the Enforcement Directorate has been conducting raids at the office of the Centre for Equity Studies (CES), Umeed Ghar (Children’s Home), and Harsh Mander’s residence from 9.30 am… Over the last several months, the organisation has been subjected to raids, investigations, and inquiries by different government agencies including Delhi Police, and NCPCR. CES has cooperated with every government agency by providing all organisational details requested…including balance sheets and other financial and programmatic documents…

“It is deeply distressing for the entire team of CES and this continued harassment has created hurdles in the path of our organisational vision of working for the poorest of the poor and most marginalised sections of society.”

On Thursday morning, employees who reached the CES office in Adchini after the searches started, were not allowed inside. They said most of their work involved research pertaining to human rights.

A statement signed by 565 signatories, including several activists and public intellectuals, condemned the ED action and said the searches were part of a “continuing chain of abuse of state institutions” to silence its critics.

The signatories include Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed, economist Jean Dreze, senior advocate Indira Jaising, DU professor Apoorvanand, women’s activists Kavita Krishnan and Annie Raja, social and environmental activist Medha Patkar, and former IPS officer Julio Ribeiro.

On 10 September 2021, General Moeldoko, the Presidential Chief of Staff officially reported human rights defenders Egi Primayogha and Miftachul Choir to the Criminal Investigation Unit of the National Police of Jakarta for alleged defamation, related to article 27 of the Electronic Information and Transactions Law and articles 310 and 311 of the criminal code. If charged, the human rights defenders could be sentenced to 6 years in prison. Egi Primayogha is a human rights defender and member of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), a prominent anti-corruption organisation in Indonesia. As a student, he was involved in various civil society movements in university, such as the student press and student co-operative movement. The human rights defender is currently working on various human rights issues such as freedom of information, access to health, and the right to natural resources. He is also vocal about the implication of politicians and business groups in human rights violations. Mifta chul Choir is a human rights defender and a short-term contract member of the Political Corruption Division of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW). His research focuses on political economy of the coal mining industry, the party financing regime and the electoral system. Prior to joining ICW, Miftachul Choir was involved with the student press and various student movement groups. Currently, he is a postgraduate student at the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies (IHRP), Mahidol University. On 10 September 2021, General Moeldoko, the Presidential Chief of Staff, officially accused Egi Primayogha and Miftachul Choir of defamation and reported them to the Criminal Investigation Unit of the National Police of Jakarta. The accusations against the human rights defenders relate to a study published by the Political Corruption Division of ICW which alleges the involvement of various public officials, in promoting the circulation of the drug Ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both human rights defenders were involved in the research and presentation of this study. On 29 July 2021, it was reported that the Presidential Chief of Staff planned to issue a subpoena against Egi Primayogha and Miftachul Choir regarding the study published by ICW. On the same day, 109 civil society organisations and community groups expressed solidarity with Egi Primayogha, Miftachul Choir and ICW and urged General Moeldoko to withdraw the subpoena. On 2 August 2021, the lawyer of the Presidential Chief of Staff sent a subpoena to ICW, specifically addressing Egi Primayogha and Miftachul Choir. The subpoena asked them to withdraw the claims made by their study and to apologise to the Presidential Chief of Staff within 24 hours. It also threatened to report the human rights defenders to the police if the demands were not met. Subsequently, two other subpoenas issued by Moeldoko were sent to Egi Primayogha and Miftachul Choir on 5 August 2021 and 20 August 2021, with similar demands and threats. In Indonesia, article 27 paragraph (3) of the Electronic Information and Transactions Law concerns defamation, and articles 310 and 311 of the Criminal Code concern attacking someone’s honor and reputation with accusations and defamation respectively. However, the Criminal Code also contains relevant justifications for the publishing of the study by the human rights defenders under Article 310 paragraph (3), which states, “it does not constitute defamation if the act is carried out in the public interest”. It has been observed by human rights defenders in Indonesia that government officials often abuse their power by using the Electronic, Information, and Transactions Law and defamation charges to silence activists or human rights defenders in the country.

A citizen journalist and a protester who allegedly painted graffiti about monarchy reform at Din Daeng Intersection on 13 September were arrested by the police on Wednesday night (15 September).

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that Wiraphap Wongsaman was arrested and taken to Chaiyaphruek Police Station in Nonthaburi Province to file the report and then detained at Phaholyothin Police Station in Bangkok.

Student activist Wanwalee Thammasattaya posted on Facebook that she personally knew Wiraphap by the nickname ‘Reef’ and that he was arrested while eating noodles. He was accused of painting graffiti reading ‘The monarchy should be reformed to be under the constitution’.

She stated that Reef has been the target of Information Operations and a pro-monarchy group which tried to label him as a radical protester. A video of him shoving reporters’ cameras was criticized online. In fact he was trying to prevent reporters from recording the faces of protesters who were minors, and had later apologized to the reporters.

On the same night, a citizen was arrested for resisting the authorities. He was taken to Thakham Police Station before being detained at Phaya Thai Police Station. According to Voice TV, a citizen journalist was arrested while wearing a purple vest that identified him as a follower of Kathoei Mae Luk On (trans mom with an infant child), a YouTuber who has been live broadcasting the Din Daeng protests.

Similar to the case of Ratsadon News whose reporter was arrested on Monday night (13 September), Kathoei Mae Luk On is a citizen journalist with 300,300 followers on YouTube.

A reporter for Voice of Democracy said he was harassed by authorities on Saturday while covering a land dispute between a new airport project and affected villagers in Kandal Stung district.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association said a second journalist was warned by villagers to stay away because police were threatening to arrest him.

Pok Kheuy, who is an intern at VOD, told CamboJA that he went to cover a press conference held by residents involved in a land dispute over the new Phnom Penh Airport in Kandal Stung district, Kandal province, on Saturday.

“When I interviewed the people, authorities dressed in civilian clothes took pictures of me and my motorbike,” he said. “After I finished my interviews, I drove my motorbike back to Phnom Penh and about 5 minutes later, I noticed that two people followed behind me.”

Kheuy said as he drove, five uniformed police in the street tried pulling him over but he continued driving.

“They still followed and said they were police and asked me to stop and talk to them, but I didn’t stop, and when I refused to stop, they shouted at me calling me ‘thief’,” he said.

Kheuy said he was frightened for his safety and considered it a threat against the freedom of press.

“I would like to express the sorrow that authorities are abusing the existing law on the press that ensures the safety for journalists and that the journalists have the right to report and cover news anywhere that they are not banned from,” he said. “But the authorities instead continue to restrict, and I think it is a bad thing and is persecuting journalists’ jobs.”

Kandal Stung district governor, Ouch Sao Voeun, said he did not know of the case. However, he said authorities in his area never ban journalists from covering news.

“I don’t know about this but if they are just covering news, nobody banned them, they can cover the news wherever they are allowed,” he said.

Kandal Provincial police chief, Chhoeun Sochet hung up the phone when a CamboJA reporter asked about the incident.

Information Ministry spokesman Meas Sophorn said he did not know about the issue and needed to check with the provincial information department first.

However, he said, in general, journalists are not allowed to enter places where the authorities are in operation.

“Those who have no obligation [to be there] including the journalists are not allowed to enter the place because it may cause an obstacle and obstruct the authority’s operation and also cause danger for authorities as well,” he said. “And authorities have the right not to allow journalists to enter.”

In July, the Ministry of Information gave local authorities the green light to take legal action against journalists that they deem to be unprofessional or spreading false information that obstructs law enforcement.

The ministry made its decision after Kandal provincial authorities wrote to the ministry in June asking it to take legal action against a number of journalists who live streamed a protest against the new airport development.

Luos Seng, the owner of online news station LSN News TV and one of the journalists targeted by provincial authorities, had been warned by authorities after live streaming the protest.

He told CamboJA on Monday that he did not cover the press conference on Saturday because villagers called him and told him not to come or he would be arrested.

A villager told CamboJA that the authorities had been deployed along the streets outside of the press conference. He said authorities chased after Kheuy while about 10 villagers also followed behind to help him in case he was arrested by authorities.

CamboJA Executive Director, Nop Vy said in a statement on Monday that the act represented a serious threat against a journalist’s rights.

“Intimidation of journalists and threats through various forms seriously affects press freedom, the state of freedom of expression in Cambodia, and both journalists’ and the public’s right to information.”

CamboJA has recorded 38 cases of harassment against 56 journalists since the start of the year.

Claiming compensation offers have been too low, for three years now hundreds of families have been locked in disputes over the $1.5 billion airport project developed by Overseas Cambodia Investment Corp (OCIC), which is owned by the well-connected Oknha Pung Kheav Se.

On September 1, the company cut off village roads, making it difficult for residents to access farmland. The Kandal provincial administration issued a statement on September 3, stating that road closures and road blocks are to drain water from the runway construction site.

However, villager Tuon Vannak, who owns 0.40 hectare of land directly affected by the runway project said: “We feel that the authorities have cut off roads to encroach on people’s land because people will not be able to access their land.”

Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association calls on authorities with clear measures against officials who harass and obstruct the work of journalists.

Sri Lanka police arrested over 45 people Thursday (08) for engaging and demonstrations and protests in violation of a COVID-19 ban on protests and public meetings, police said.

Thirty-one people including Sri Lanka Teachers’ Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin Thursday morning over a protest held against the proposed Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) bill at the parliament roundabout in Sri Jayawardenapura, Kotte.

The protest was jointly organised by the Inter-University Students Federation (IUSF), the Sri Lanka Teachers’ Union and the Frontline Socialist Party.

The bill, first presented in 2018 under the previous government, has been controversial, with left-leaning opposition parties including the Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) alleging that it paves the way for militarisation of higher education in Sri Lanka.

Police Media Spokesman Senior Deputy Inspector General (SDIG) Ajith Rohana said that two monks and two females were among the 31 arrested.

Meanwhile, 13 members of the JVP, including two former provincial councillors, were arrested at a protest staged in Akuressa against the fuel price increase and the government’s controversial chemical fertilizer ban.

On Wednesday (07), former JVP provincial councillor Samantha Vidyaratna and national organiser of the All Island Govi Jana Federation (farmers’ collective) Namal Karunaratne and the three others were arrested over a protest against the fertiliser ban.

Four people including Nuwara Eliya district JVP organiser Manjula Suraweera Arachchi was arrested over another protest held in Hatton against the KDU bill on Thurday.

Meanwhile, the main opposition Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) held a protest near parliament Thursday morning against what it called the government’s suppression of the people’s right to protest.

Sri Lanka banned protests and public meetings until further notice on Tuesday (06) to prevent large gatherings and the further spread of COVID-19.

Director-General of Health Services Dr Asela Gunawardena had written to the Inspector General of Police informing him of the decision, a police statement said.

Police said that the violations of the said decision will be dealt with according to quarantine regulations.

The home ministry has suspended the foreign funding licence of a prominent Kerala-based NGO linked to influential Sunni leader from the state, Sheikh Aboobacker Ahmed, after detecting violation of provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 (FCRA). The suspension of FCRA registration bars Markazul Ighasathil Kairiyathil Hindiyya – the top foreign-funded entity in Kozhikode, with over Rs 146-crore receipts from abroad in the last three years – from receiving funding from international donors without prior permission or till revocation of the suspension order. The association, funded mostly by charities based in the Gulf, can make a representation against the suspension order, following which the home ministry may either review the suspension or go ahead with permanent cancellation of its FCRA registration after a 180-day period, extendable by another 180 days. The prime violations cited by MHA in its suspension order issued on August 27, 2021 include misutilisation and diversion of foreign contributions by Markazul, which also operates under the brand ‘Relief and Charitable Foundation of India (RCFI)’; misrepresentation of facts; and failure to submit annual FCRA returns for the year 2019-20. A senior functionary of the NGO confirmed to TOI that the association had received the suspension order. “Some clerical errors are cited as reasons for suspension. We will clarify everything after a careful reading of the order,” he said. The suspension of Markazul’s FCRA licence followed a due inquiry process, with an MHA questionnaire sent to it on 05.04.2018. A government official told TOI that the reply to the questionnaire revealed that the association had violated Section 12(4)(a)(vi), Section 18 and Section 19 of the FCRA. According to sources, a foreign contribution amount of Rs 50 lakh withdrawn by the NGO for purchase of land was received back on 13.01.2015 upon cancellation of the land deal. This amount was however not deposited in the foreign contribution-designated bank account, but retained in cash in the NGO’s office. Markazul claimed Rs 50-lakh cash was distributed for its orphan care programme. However enquiry and NGO’s records showed that Rs 50 lakh cash was distributed between July 2014 and December 2014, before the amount was received back on 13.01.2015. “Hence the amount of Rs 50 lakh received on account of cancelled land deed is not accounted for and appears to have been diverted/misutilized,” the order said adding this was a violation of Section 12(4)(a)(vi), 18 and 19 of the FCRA, 2010. The order also points to purchase of a vehicle in name of an individual and not the association, citing it as another violation of Section 12(4)(a)(vi) of FCRA. It further stated that the NGO had utilised foreign funds for construction of a building on land taken on lease by Islamic Education Board of India from Waqf Board of India. The MHA cited utilisation of foreign contribution for creation of assets on land on which the association has no claim, as a “violation of Section 12(4)(a)(vi) of the Act”. Markazul also failed to file its annual returns for the year 2019-20, a violation of Section 18 of FCRA. A Markazul official told TOI that the “online window” for filing annual returns was closed just before they could upload the returns. Markazul was founded in 2000 as a vision of Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliyar, a popular figure with politicians in Kerala and referred to as ‘Grand Mufti of India’ by supporters. The organisation, which has Aboobacker's son Muhammed Abdul Hakkim as its general secretary, works in fields like education, cultural restoration, disaster management, health and sanitation, etc. It claims presence in 24 states and runs 233 schools.

In August, police of various divisions approached activists and citizens at their houses due to political involvement or monarchy-related posts. The TLHR has received reports of such harassment in at least 27 instances.

Activists organizing the car mob activities or participating citizens in several locations were visited by police officers at their houses, and were warned against attending future activities. For example, in Kanchanaburi province, the leaders of “Seri Kan for Democracy” group were approached by at least 25 authorities, including police, soldiers, and administrative sector, at home, and asked them to refrain from organizing the car mob activity in the area.

In Nakhon Ratchasima, a female activist noted that several vehicles belonging to plain-clothed men were spotted around her village throughout the morning of 21 August 2021, after the car mob activity had been announced in the afternoon. In addition, authorities also inquired about her from the village’s market owner.

2 online reporters were arrested on the night of 13 September while covering the protest at Din Daeng intersection and charged with violating the curfew and the emergency decree.

Arrested were Nattapong Malee from Ratsadon News and Panida (surname withheld) from the Free Our Friends page. Live footage from Ratsadon News showed police asking Nattapong to produce written permission for him to work during the 21.00-04.00 curfew. He responded that his application was pending, and was taken in.

Ratsadon News is one among many online citizen journalists providing close coverage of the protests at Din Daeng through live broadcasts. These have occasionally exposed police brutality.

The two were detained overnight and taken to court the next day to request further temporary detention. The court released them on bail with no security.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights reported that 11 people were arrested on the same night. 5 were minors, one of whom was 12 years old, 2 were reporters, and one was a volunteer nurse. ‘Unaffiliated’ media barred from covering protests

On 14 September, Khaosod reported that Pol Col Kritsana Phattanacharoen, deputy police spokesperson, said in a press briefing that Youtubers and freelancers from Thai and foreign news agencies are not allowed to cover the protests if they cannot confirm their affiliation.

Prior to the arrests, Pol Maj Gen Piya Tawichai, Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, gave an interview to the Question Time programme on the Thai PBS channel that the police have received media reports about protesters or Youtubers disguising themselves as journalists.

Pol Maj Gen Piya said the police would remove unaffiliated journalists or Youtubers from the scene.

Reports of unaffiliated reporters and freelance journalists and photographers being blocked from reporting and assaulted have increased in the latter half of 2021 as police increased pressure on pro-democracy protesters.

Although official media carry press cards, they are often affected by police use of rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon, sometimes deployed indiscriminately.

Sirote Klampaiboon, a Voice TV reporter, tweeted on Monday night (13 Sep) that a group of reporters at Din Daeng had rubber bullets fired at them after the police picked them out with green lasers.

Somchai Homla-or, a human rights lawyer, in an interview with Backpack Journalist on 17 August after a freelance photographer was hit by a police baton that destroyed her camera lens, said that the authorities have no right to use violence to stop people and the media from taking photos or videos as they serve as tools for monitoring the protest situation.

Somchai cited a Court of Appeal Region 5 ruling, which said that people can take photos and videos when the authorities make an arrest or perform their duty at checkpoints as it is meant to increase transparency regarding the authorities’ actions. Citizens and journalists are able to record the situation as long as they do not interfere with the authorities.

The Thai Media for Democracy Alliance (DemAll), a group of pro-democracy media and content creators, published a statement after the arrest of the 2 citizen journalists, saying that it found many reports that reporters were asked to produce press cards, to stop live broadcasts and to leave the scene, with the curfew used as an excuse.

DemAll demanded that the police not restrict the definition of the media to only those affiliated with major press outlets and put a stop to threats against journalists.

“The press cards are not the main issue. Even citizen journalists are regarded as journalists with the duty of relaying information to the people,” stated the statement.

About the Human Rights Defender: Mr. Nitesh Alawa works as a patwari (revenue officer) in the village of Badi Khattal in Jobat tehsil of Alirajpur district in Madhya Pradesh. Mr. Alawa has been active in the advocating for the rights of Adivasis in the region and has in the past raised his voice against atrocities committed against the Adivasi communities. Mr. Alawa is the district president, Alirajpur of the Madhya Pradesh Patwari Union, the Media In-charge of Tribal Employees-Officers Organization and is the district vice president of the Sched- uled Caste-Scheduled Tribe Officer Employee Organization.

Background of the Incident: On May 13, 2021, five members of an Adivasi family, including three minors were murdered in Nemawar village in Madhya Pradesh by members of the dominant caste community. Their bodies were buried on the farm of one of the accused and were discovered on June 29, 2021, 48 days after the crime. The incident triggered several large protests in the region by organisations against the lackadaisical attitude of the police and the administration in investigating the murders.

Details of the Incident: On July 4, 2021, and July 11, 2021, Mr. Alawa attended peaceful citizen protests in Nemawar and Manpur respectively. Both were Sundays. The third protest in Kasarvad was held on July 14, a Wednesday. Mr. Alawa was present as a promoter of Adivasi rights at the protests and expressed peaceful dissent against the administration’s han- dling of the case. On July 15, 2021, Mr. Alawa received an order suspending him from his work under Rule 3(1), 5 (1), 6(1) of the Madhya Pradesh Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1965 and Rule 9 of the M.P. Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1966, which authorizes suspensions pending disciplinary actions.

The order stated that it had come to the administration’s notice that he had made incendiary and inflammatory speeches at Adivasi meetings held in the village of Nemawar in Devas district, village Manpur in Indore district and village Kasarvad in Khargone district. The order stated that the speeches made by Mr. Alawa featured in videos that went ‘viral’ on social media.

After a court battle, the workers were getting salaries even after the mill shut down. But on June 29, the company put up an order stating all the workers will have to take VRS and put a deadline of July 13.

The Dadar police Friday detained several unemployed mill workers of Century Yarn & Denim Mills in Madhya Pradesh along with social activist Medha Patkar, while they were protesting against the company at its headquarters in Worli.

The protestors were let off at night.

Over 50 people, including unemployed workers, had come from MP to take part in the protest.

“After a court battle, the workers were getting salaries even after the mill shut down. But on June 29, the company put up an order stating all the workers will have to take VRS and put a deadline of July 13. We want the company to give workers back their employment by reopening the mill,” Jagdish Khairaliya of Shramik Janta Sangh said.

Around 200 policemen from four different districts - Khargone, Khandwa, Burhanpur and Dhar - assembled at the protest site outside the factory premises. The SDM in-charge stated that Section 144 of the CrPC was in force in the area and the protestors had to leave and vacate the protest site immediately. The workers refused to leave the area. Then the police manhandled and roughed up workers, physically picking up each worker and pushing them into vehicles brought by them. When the police ran out of vehicles, private buses were organised to put protestors inside. Nearly 600 protestors were picked and transported out of which around 200 were just left on the road. Many women HRDs were injured, and one was even admitted by the police to the hospital where she was kept in the intensive care unit as she had fainted. The injuries were not only sustained during the police action but also due to the reckless driving of the drivers of the vehicles in which women were transported. In all 331 men were transported to ITI School in Kasrawad, where they were detained and let go at midnight. Around 70 women were transported to Saski Mahavidyalaya, where they were detained till 10 p.m.

The protest site and tents where workers had been camping for years were demolished and their belongings confiscated. The protestors have still not got their belongings despite a detailed list having been sent by the protestors to the SDM. It is crucial to note that the police personnel present at the protest site did not have name tags or badges on while acting against peaceful protestors. The protestors have not been provided a copy of the FIR, however they have learnt Section 151 of the Indian Penal Code has been invoked, carries a sentence for punishment of up to six months imprisonment, if five or more persons knowingly join or continue any assembly likely to cause a disturbance of the public peace, after such assembly has been lawfully commanded to disperse.

Two Right to Information (RTI) activists have been killed in separate incidents within a week in Karnataka.

While T Shridhar (40) was attacked with iron rods and bricks by a group of assailants on Thursday, July 15, in Harapanahalli town in Vijayanagara district, Venkatesh S (43), a resident of Tavarekere, was attacked on the same day in Bengaluru. Shridhar was rushed to the hospital, however, he succumbed to his injuries on on Thursday. Whereas, Venkatesh passed away on Sunday.

Venkatesh was brutally attacked by unknown assailants in Magadi Road of Southwest Bengaluru. According to police, five armed, motorcycle-borne assailants attacked the activist near his farmland and fled.

While the investigation into the case is ongoing, a senior police officer from Tavarekere police station told indianexpress.com, that by preliminary investigation, it looks like “a revenge attack”.

A group of 5 men came in 3 scooters and kept honking near his farm land at Tavarakere where Mr. Venkatesh had his office. When he came out to see the people who were honking, they got down from the scooters, attacked him and chopped his right hand and right leg. While Mr. Venkatesh was shouting in pain, passer-by from the neighbouring Ashram and his brother heard his cries. The assaulters then ran away.

His brother and others called an ambulance and rushed him to hospital. Doctors operated Venkatesh, and he was declared to be out of danger. On July 15, 2021, the police registered a FIR 233/2021, U/s- 307 and 34 against unknown people. In the statement given to the police, Mr. Venkatesh stated that this attack was due to the RTI application filed by him against the following land surveys i.e. Yelachaguppe survey No. 116 land encroachment, survey no. 60, Tavaraekere, Yelachaguppe survey No. 18/1, Yelachaguppe Rampura survey No. 04, Tavaraekere Gangammana lake, survey no. 60 Yelachaguppe. These RTIs related to developmental activities in the locality. His family also corroborated the same.

On July 18, 2021, Mr. Venkatesh was taken to Hosmat Hospital, Bengaluru where he underwent extensive surgery to reattach his right arm and leg. He was later admitted to the Bangalore Sagar Hospital. However, he died on Sunday, July 18, 2021. After his death the Article 302 IPC was added and 9 people were arrested. On July 19, 2021, the Bangalore police said in its press statement that it could be a revenge attack but didn’t mention it was because of his RTI activism.

T Shridhar (40) was attacked with iron rods and bricks by a group of assailants on Thursday, July 15, in Harapanahalli town in Vijayanagara district.

Speaking to indianexpress.com, Murthi Rao, Deputy Superintendent of Harapanahalli town police, said, “Shridhar was allegedly attacked by four unidentified persons, armed with lethal weapons, when he was having tea on the backside of a canteen in a college compound in Harapanahalli Thursday night.”

“The investigation is based on a complaint registered by the victim’s wife. An FIR has been registered under Section 302 (murder) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” he said. Rao added that Shridhar’s wife, Sheela, has alleged that he was killed because he used to file RTIs, which did not go down well with some people.

The complaint filed by Shridhar’s wife mentions the name of Congress MLA P T Parameshar Naik’s son Bharath. Bharath had posed a death threat to her husband, Sheela has stated.

The Harapanahalli police have arrested four to five suspects in the case, whose identities are yet to be revealed as the investigation is ongoing.

On July 13, 2021. Mr. T. Shridhar called his wife Shilpa and informed her that he feels his life is under threat as he has filed a case against Mr. Bharath, the son of a politician Mr. PT Parameshwara Naik and HK Halees, also a relative of a powerful politician, for land encroachment.

An FIR No. 0108/2021 was filed under IPC U/s – 34, 302 (Murder) at the Harapanahalli Police station and 5 people along with Vagish were arrested for murder. However, no action has been taken against the people against whom, associated with powerful politicians, Mr. Shridhar expressed feared for his life. He had already expressed this fear of his life being at stake due to RTIs filed by him against relatives of powerful politicians.

Media Alliance Nepal has drawn serious attention to the incident of police beating up an Avenues reporter who reached Hotel Marriott in Kathmandu to collect news.

Correspondent Sheetal Rijal and cameraman Suresh Rajak were beaten up by the police on September 10 at a Naxal-based hotel in Kathmandu. The issue of Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is currently the most important issue in Nepal.

"It is the duty of the media to provide the public with information and information related to the incident," said a statement issued by Media Alliance Nepal.

The Alliance said that it was objectionable for the team led by the Deputy Superintendent of Police to take the media personnel under control for a few hours.

Nepal police manhandled reporters at https://avenueskhabar.com.np/ (online news portal) Shital Rijal and his cameraperson Suresh Rajak while reporting on September 10 in Kathmandu. Kathmandu is the federal capital of Nepal.

Talking to Freedom Forum, reporter Rijal said that the incident took place outside a hotel in central Kathmandu where the reporters were trying to cover the updates of Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Police persons on duty outside the hotel barred their entry into the hotel and took the reporter under control for 1.5 hours.

"We requested the officers to let us return back without reporting but in vain. Thereafter, cameraperson Rajak started recording video, then the police manhandled us and broke the camera. They did not even state a reason for mistreating us", shared Rijal.

The reporters returned back home after 1.5 hours.

Lately, MCC has been an important issue of public concern in Nepal which has drawn wide attention of the public as well as other concerned sectors

Freedom Forum condemns the incident as it is sheer violation of press freedom and citizen's right to information. Obstructing the journalists from doing their job depicts how hostile the environment is for them. FF strongly urges the concerned authority to address the case seriously and provide compensation to the journalists for their loss.

Police in Almaty have dismantled a tent set up by protesters in front of the Chinese Consulate as part of their protest demanding the release of their relatives from prisons and so-called reeducation camps in China's northwestern Xinjiang region.

Despite a police order not to erect tents at the site, dozens of protesters spent a 20th night in front of the consulate in Kazakhstan's largest city on September 14.

One of the protesters, Khalida Aqytkhan,told RFE/RL that she will continue to spend her nights in front of the consulate even without a tent as she fights for the release of her three sons from Chinese custody. After Kazakhstan gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang and elsewhere have benefited from Kazakhstan's state program on resettlement of ethnic Kazakhs into the country.

Many of them obtained permanent residence in Kazakhstan or Kazakh citizenship but continue to visit Xinjiang on a regular basis either to see relatives or for bureaucratic reasons, where some of them face pressure or even arrest and imprisonment.

Some of the protesters have been rallying in front of the Chinese Consulate in Almaty for many months.

The rallies of one of such protesters, Farida Qabylbek, paid off after her 58-year-old husband, Raqyzhan Zeinolla, was released from home arrest in Xinjiang and came to Kazakhstan from China in April after serving almost 15 years in prison and reeducation camps on espionage charges that his relatives rejected. In recent years, many similar protests have taken place across Kazakhstan, with demonstrators demanding the authorities officially intervene in the situation faced by ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang.

The U.S. State Department has said that as many as 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of Xinjiang's other indigenous, mostly Muslim ethnic groups have been confined in detention centers.

China denies that the facilities are internment camps, but individuals who have fled the province say people undergo "political indoctrination" at a network of facilities officially referred to as reeducation camps.

Beijing's policies in Xinjiang are a sensitive issue in Kazakhstan.

China is a major trading partner for the Central Asian country, and the Kazakh state-controlled media has generally avoided reporting about Beijing's policies in Xinjiang.

Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs. The region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans. Han, China's largest ethnicity, is the second-largest community in Xinjiang.

Sureerat Chiwarak, mother of student activist Parit Chiwarak, has received a summons from Thong Lo Police Station on a violation of the Emergency Decree charge.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said that Sureerat has to report to the police station to hear the charges on 20 September 2021. TLHR also posted a picture of the summons, which stated that the charge was filed by Pol Maj Ithithon Praosetsak, investigation inspector at Thong Lo Police Station, and that former Red Shirt leader Nattawut Saikuar also faces the same charge.

The student activist group United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration (UFTD) said that the charge is related to a protest at the Asoke intersection, organized by Nattawut. The UFTD also said that Sureerat only attended the protest.

This is Sureerat’s second summons for violating the Emergency Decree. According to TLHR, she previously received a summons from Thong Lo Police after a complaint was filed against her by Srisuwan Janya, Secretary-General of the Association for the Protection of the Constitution, who is known as Thailand’s “complainer-in-chief” for repeatedly filing police complaints against activists and politicians.

The UFTD said that Srisuwan’s complaint is related to the 3 September 2021 protest organized by the UFTD and the activist group Thalufah. However, TLHR said that the complaint is likely related to the 2 September 2021 protest at the Asoke intersection.

Sureerat has been active since the beginning of 2021 in the campaign for the release of activists detained pending trial, after her son was denied bail and detained in February 2021 along with 9 other activists. She became known, along with the mothers of other detained activists who spoke out to demand their children’s release, as the “Ratsamom,” a combination of “Ratsadon,” which means “people,” and “mom.”

Parit was released on bail on 11 May 2021, after being detained for 92 days. He was detained again on 8 August 2021 on charges relating to a protest in front of the Border Patrol Police Region 1 headquarters on 2 August 2021 to demand the release of 32 detained activists. The Criminal Court also revoked his bail on charges relating to the 19 September 2020 protest. He is currently detained at the Thanyaburi Remand Prison and has been denied bail at least 4 times.

Authorities in Vietnam on Wednesday indicted five journalists from the Báo Sạch (Clean Newspaper) Facebook-based news outlet on charges of “abusing democracy and freedom to infringe on state interests,” state media reported.

According to the indictment, issued by the Procuracy of Thoi Lai district, in the southern city of Can Tho, the Clean Newspaper staff posted anti-state and reactionary information and delved into information that was “inappropriate, distorting, against the country’s interests, and slanderous of the people’s administration” in violation of Article 331 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code.

The five indicted journalists are: Truong Chau Huu Danh, Nguyen Thanh Nha, Doan Kien Giang, Nguyen Phuong Trung Bao, and Le The Thang.

Thang has been released on bail and is barred from leaving his house while the others have been arrested and detained.

Danh, meanwhile, was also charged with posting stories that “generated bad interactions between internet users in the cyber environment” and “propagandized, distorted, defamed and seriously slandered Party organizations and local Party committees."

State media reports also said the Clean Newspaper group was paid by businesses to write and publish favorable stories.

According to the indictment, the group’s Facebook fan page, Facebook group, and YouTube channel were created in August 2019. Between the three platforms, the group had published 47 reports or videos dealing with hot-button social issues.

Article 331 and Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code have been criticized by human rights lawyers and organizations as having been used as “a tool to stifle dissenting voices.”

Dang Dinh Manh, a Vietnam-based lawyer, told RFA on Wednesday that the two articles are essentially the same, despite differing text.

“If you want to impose a lighter penalty, go with Article 331 and if you want a more serious one, go with Article 117,” said Manh.

Article 117 imposes penalties for “creating, storing, and disseminating information, documents, items, and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” while Article 331 prohibits “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the interests of the state, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals.”

Manh said an investigator told him during a meeting that prosecutors will choose which article they want to apply to a case depending on how severe they want the punishment to be.

“In general, both articles are aimed at restricting people’s freedom of expression. These articles should not exist because they contradict Vietnam’s very constitution, which allows Vietnamese people to criticize the policies they deem as detrimental to the interests of the country and the people. What the Clean Newspaper group said should not be seen as anti-State,” Manh said.

In its Freedom in the World 2021 report, Washington D.C.-based Freedom House gave Vietnam an overall score of 19 out of a possible 100, a one-point drop from last year’s rating. Vietnam scored three out of 40 in political rights, and 16 out of 60 in civil liberties.

”Freedom of expression, religious freedom, and civil society activism are tightly restricted [and the] authorities have increasingly cracked down on citizens’ use of social media and the internet,” Freedom House said.

Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. But arrests continue in 2021.

Cambodian authorities have arrested more than 30 villagers during a violent roundup of land protesters in Kandal province where they were protesting against an airport being built by a company owned by a tycoon with ties to the country’s autocratic leader, provincial police and villagers said.

The land at Kampong Talong village in Kandal’s Beung Khchang commune was taken three years ago by the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation (OCIC), a private Cambodian firm, for construction of the U.S. $1.5 billion airport project.

Around 330 families living on the disputed land refused compensation for their fields, saying the amounts offered in payment by the firm were too low.

Police beat the protesters who rallied Sunday, and 31 were arrested for alleged involvement in violence against authorities during the demonstration.

The land dispute between 330 families and the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation (OCIC) owned by Neak Oknha (honorific) Pung Khieu Se, an affluent business tycoon close to Prime Minister Hun Sen led to authorities to make the arrests.

Villager Nai Phon, who was monitoring the situation, said that authorities arrested three of his family members — his wife, Khim Chetra, and sisters Nay Phea and Nay Phol, and that police were still searching for and arresting other villagers.

“As a land grab victim, it has been three years since I begged the head of government to help solve this land dispute by giving us fair compensation so that we can accept it, Nai Phon said.

“And now we do not dare to claim the market price. We can accept a reasonable price to end the confrontation and have all the detainees released.”

RFA could not reach Kandal’s police commissioner, Chhoeun Socheth, for comment.

‘It is not a good way’

Am Sam Ath, deputy director of monitoring at Cambodian human rights group Licadho, said that this is the first time in the history of land disputes in Cambodia that authorities have arrested such a large number of people.

“We still insist on not choosing that way, and it is not a good way,” said Am Sam Ath, who condemned the resort to mass arrests.

“First, it affects both sides and draws more criticism over the issue of the land dispute as well as other allegations,” he said. “And if the people are imprisoned, their suffering will be doubled. This means that their families will face more problems.”

This arrest and violent crackdown erupted Sept. 12 after hundreds of authorities prevented farmers from accessing the land. They set fire to the rubbish in front of the security barricades used by local police and military police to block the road to their farmland now under the control of OCIC.

In response, Kandal Provincial Hall accused residents of causing acts of violence involving the use of sticks, stones, rubber bullets, and petrol bombs that injured 13 police officers.

Authorities called on residents to stop what they said were illegal activities and return to efforts to resolve the land dispute peacefully.

Acting on behalf of CIOC, Kandal provincial authorities have offered villagers U.S. $8 per square meter for their land, but villagers say that is much lower than the U.S. $70-80 per square meter estimated market price.

Van Sophat, land monitoring officer for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, previously told RFA that OCIC had failed to conduct a proper assessment of their project’s environmental impact or to consult Kampong Talong villagers on the proposed development.

The villagers hold title to their land and deserve justice and fair compensation, he said.

Hundreds of police officers blocked villagers on Sept. 7 from visiting rice fields seized to build an airport, though no injuries were reported.

Villagers stopped cultivating their land three years ago, but had to start farming again because business shutdowns caused by the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in Cambodia have left them without other ways to survive, a villager told RFA in an earlier report.

Over the last two days, the Taliban detained and later released at least 14 journalists covering protests in Kabul, the capital, against the group, according to various news reports and people familiar with the incidents who spoke with CPJ via phone and messaging app. At least nine of these journalists were subject to violence during their arrests or detention, according to those sources.

Some journalists, including those with the BBC, were also prevented from filming the protest yesterday, according to the BBC.

“The Taliban is quickly proving that earlier promises to allow Afghanistan’s independent media to continue operating freely and safely are worthless,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “We urge the Taliban to live up to those earlier promises, to stop beating and detaining reporters doing their job, and allow the media to work freely without fear of reprisal.”

Today, Taliban fighters detained Taqi Daryabi and Nematullah Naqdi, a video editor and a video reporter with the daily newspaper Etilaatroz, following their coverage of ongoing protests in Kabul, according to Etilaatroz and the Los Angeles Times.

Taqi Daryabi and Naqdi told Agence France-Presse that the Taliban fighters punched and beat them with batons, electrical cables, and whips after accusing them of organizing the protest. Taqi Daryabi told the Los Angeles Times that he was shoved to the ground and beaten unconscious in Taliban custody. Naqdi told AFP that Taliban fighters insulted him and kicked him in the head, and that a Taliban fighter placed his foot on his head and crushed his face against the concrete. When he was asked why he was being beaten, he was told, “you are lucky you weren’t beheaded,” he said, according to AFP.

Zaki Daryabi, Etilaatroz‘s publisher, told CPJ via phone after publication that the Taliban subjected Taqi Daryabi and Naqdi to severe physical abuse that he described as “torture” for four hours, citing the flogging, and said that each lost consciousness at least four times and one time, respectively, in custody. CPJ could not independently confirm allegations of torture.

Taqi Daryabi’s lower back, upper legs, and face, and Naqdi’s left arm, upper back, upper legs, and face were marked by red lesions after the beatings, as seen in photos posted to Twitter by Etilaatroz and Zaki Daryabi and on the Los Angeles Times’ website. Taqi Daryabi appeared to be unable to walk unaided, according to a video posted on Twitter by Zaki Daryabi.

CPJ was unable to immediately determine the full extent of the journalists’ injuries. The two received treatment at a hospital, according to Zaki Daryabi and a tweet by Etilaatroz.

Before they were let go, Etilaatroz’s editor and two other journalists arrived at the station to persuade the Taliban to release Taqi Daryabi and Naqdi and they were also detained, according to the Los Angeles Times and Zaki Daryabi. Al-Jazeera and Zaki Daryabi identified the editor as Kadhim Karimi and the two other journalists as Aber Shaygan and Lutfali Sultani, an investigative reporter and current affairs reporter with Etilaatroz.

Al-Jazeera reported that the three said that Taliban fighters pushed and slapped them and took their belongings, including mobile phones, upon their arrival to the station. The three were taken into a small holding cell with 15 people in it, Shaygan told Al-Jazeera. Karimi, Shaygan, and Sultani did not sustain any injuries and did not seek medical attention, according to Zaki Daryabi.

Zaki Daryabi told CPJ that Taqi Daryabi and Naqdi were released after approximately four hours in detention, and Karimi, Shaygan, and Sultani were released after approximately three and a half hours in detention, adding that the Taliban returned all of the journalists’ belongings.

Shaygan told Al-Jazeera that a Taliban official warned them that “what these protesters were doing is illegal and by covering such things, you all broke the law. We will let you go this time, but next time you won’t be let out so easily.”

Zaki Daryabi told CPJ that Etilaatroz contacted two senior Taliban officials upon hearing that Taki Daryabi and Naqdi were detained, but has not received a response as of September 9. Etilaatroz seeks to lodge a complaint with Taliban officials, he said.

“This is the first very serious incident involving journalists in Kabul, and if we don’t stand together, much worse things may happen,” Zaki Daryabi told The New York Times.

Also today, Taliban fighters surrounded two journalists with the Los Angeles Times covering a protest in Kabul, lunged for one of the journalists’ cameras, and shoved them toward a local police station, according to the newspaper’s report. A Taliban leader told the journalists that photographing protests was “illegal,” and ordered them to delete any photos, according to that report. The journalists were escorted to their car and were watched until they left, the report said. CPJ was unable to immediately determine the identities of those journalists.

Also today, a local producer with EuroNews was detained and later released by the Taliban, according to the Los Angeles Times and a tweet by the outlet. A colleague of the producer told the Los Angeles Times that three Taliban fighters repeatedly slapped him in the face and confiscated his phone and wallet, which were returned when he was released. CPJ was unable to immediately determine the identity of that producer.

The Taliban have fired warning shots to disperse the crowd at a large protest in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Video footage from the scene shows people running to safety, while heavy gunfire can be heard in the background.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets on Tuesday to denounce Taliban rule and demand women's rights.

Protesters also chanted anti-Pakistan slogans, as many believe neighbouring Pakistan supports the Taliban, which the country denies.

A video sent to the BBC shows Taliban fighters firing their guns into the air - a move the group banned last week after several people were reported killed after celebratory aerial fire.

Guards at a nearby bank opened its basement car park to dozens of women who sheltered from the gunfire for about 20 minutes, one of the protesters told the BBC.

Some journalists, including the BBC's team, were prevented from filming at the rally. Afghanistan's Tolo news agency reported that its cameraman was arrested and detained by the Taliban for nearly three hours.

A former government official, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC that Taliban members were taking close-up photos of leading protesters, possibly to help identify them later.

Women have been protesting for the past week, but on Tuesday men also joined their calls for equality and safety. Many observers had commented that there were few men at the previous women-led rallies.

The protesters were heard chanting "long live the resistance" and "death to Pakistan" as they marched.

"The Islamic government is shooting at our poor people," one woman at the protest told Reuters news agency.

Another protester, Sarah Fahim, told AFP news agency: "Afghan women want their country to be free. They want their country to be rebuilt. We are tired... We want that all our people have normal lives. How long shall we live in this situation?"

The demonstrations come one day after Ahmad Massoud, the leader of anti-Taliban fighters in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, called for a "national uprising" by civilians against the militants.

Many protesters showed support for the resistance forces, who say they are still fighting off the Taliban in Panjshir.

The Taliban on Monday claimed victory in the province - the final pocket of territory which has remained outside their rule.

Yesterday at approximately 11:00 a.m., Taliban fighters detained Wahid Ahmadi, a camera operator with the privately owned broadcaster TOLO News, while he was filming the protest near the presidential palace in Kabul, according to a report by his employer and Lotfullah Najafizada, the head of TOLO News TV, who spoke with CPJ via phone.

Taliban fighters confiscated Ahmadi’s camera, handcuffed him, and took him to the Taliban military headquarters in Kabul, according to Najafizada. The Taliban released Ahmadi approximately three hours later after the broadcaster communicated with the Taliban cultural commission, according to Najafizada. The Taliban returned Ahmadi’s camera with the footage of the protests intact, he said.

Also at approximately 11:00 a.m. yesterday, Taliban fighters detained two additional journalists with a local broadcaster reporting on the protest as they approached the presidential palace, according to the journalists, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal by the Taliban.

Taliban fighters shoved the journalists to the ground and used their microphone to beat both of the journalists on their heads, breaking the microphone, they said.

The two were handcuffed and taken to an office of the National Directorate of Security, the journalist said. While in custody, Taliban fighters shoved both the journalists to the ground and beat and kicked the first journalist on his head, shoulders, back, and legs, and the second journalist on his arm, head, chest, and back, they said. They also threatened to beat them with metal and electric tools, they added. Taliban fighters also slapped the first across the face, he said.

The two were released at approximately 1:30 p.m., they said, adding that the Taliban fighters returned their camera but kept its memory card and their microphone. The first journalist visited a hospital and was prescribed painkillers and muscle relaxants, according to the journalist and a copy of the prescription, which CPJ reviewed. The second journalist sustained bruising on his head and a cut on his elbow, but did not seek medical attention, he said.

At approximately 12:30 p.m. yesterday, Taliban fighters also detained Mirzahussain Sadid, a correspondent with Afghan Notes, a project of the U.S.-based content creation agency Fasila, according to a tweet by Afghan Notes and Brian Conley and Mohammad Aliraza, the heads of Afghan Notes, who spoke with CPJ via phone. Conley said that the project would officially launch later this month.

Sadid was filming and taking pictures of demonstrators in Kabul with his phone when Taliban fighters beat him and took him to the previous office of the interior ministry, according to those sources. Conley and Aliraza did not provide additional details of the beating. The Taliban did not return Sadid’s phone that they seized during his arrest, Aliraza said, adding that Sadid was released at around 8:30 p.m. yesterday.

At approximately 1:00 p.m. yesterday, Taliban fighters detained another journalist with an international broadcaster while he was filming the protest with his phone in Zanbaq Square and dragged him into an office of the National Directorate of Security, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal by the Taliban. While in custody, the fighters pointed their guns at the journalist’s head, and threatened that if he published a report about the Taliban, they would shoot him in the head, he said. The journalist was released approximately two hours later, he said, adding that he was not beaten and did not sustain any physical injuries, but was left psychologically shaken.

Separately, CPJ is investigating a report from The Associated Press that Taliban fighters detained an additional journalist and forced him to rub his nose on the ground and apologize for covering the Kabul protest yesterday before releasing him.

CPJ is also investigating an incident alleged in a tweet by Ezzatullah Mehrdad, a reporter covering Afghanistan for The Washington Post, that Taliban fighters detained Mortaza Samadi, a freelance photographer, while he was covering a protest against the group yesterday in the western Herat city. The Taliban accused him of being a “leader of the protesters and chanting deaths to the Emirate,” according to the tweet. As of today, Samadi remains in the Taliban’s custody, according to a person familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal by the Taliban.

Taliban officials have broken up a demonstration by dozens of women in Kabul demanding rights following the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.

The group say the Taliban targeted them with tear gas and pepper spray as they tried to walk from a bridge to the presidential palace.

But the Taliban maintain the protest got out of control, according to Afghan media outlet Tolo News.

It's the latest of several protests by women in Kabul and Herat.

The women were calling for the right to work and to be included in the government. The Taliban say they will announce the make-up of their administration in the coming days.

The Taliban have said women can be involved in government, but not hold ministerial positions.

Many women fear a return to the way they were treated when the Taliban were previously in power, between 1996 and 2001. Women were forced to cover their faces outside, and harsh punishments were meted out for minor transgressions.

"Twenty-five years ago, when the Taliban came, they prevented me from going to school," journalist Azita Nazimi told Tolo.

"After five years of their rule, I studied for 25 years and worked hard. For the sake of our better future, we will not allow this to happen."

Another demonstrator, Soraya, told Reuters: "They also hit women on the head with a gun magazine, and the women became bloody."

A citizen journalist was detained on Monday and later released after filming a police station and preparing to interview family members of 30 Kandal villagers arrested in a land dispute over Phnom Penh’s new international airport.

Chray Nim, who is also a land activist, said she was working as a citizen journalist for the community, though she would not elaborate on where she publishes her reports.

The airport development, in Kandal province’s Kandal Stung district, has in recent months become more aggressive about clearing the land of villagers, who are refusing the compensation on offer to relocate.

Villagers have tried to block roads in protest, while police and military police have increased their presence to stop them.

On Sunday, a confrontation between villagers and authorities turned violent, with villagers allegedly hurling rocks at officers before 30 were arrested.

Amid a downpour outside the Kandal Provincial Court on Monday afternoon, a man said he was there with his wife because their 22-year-old daughter, a garment factory worker, was arrested on Sunday. He added that “I will be arrested” if he was named in publication.

“I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to burst out crying,” the man said of the night after his daughter’s arrest. “It’s our land and we’ve been jailed for our land.”

The villagers were angry, he said. But he said he was also annoyed at the children who had hurled rocks at officers. “They couldn’t control their emotions,” he said. “The young were aggressive, and the older people got arrested.”

Two women said they had come from Phnom Penh after their 55-year-old mother was arrested. “I was very upset when I learned that she was arrested, and they prevented us from seeing her,” one of the women said, declining to be named. The two had been outside the police station since 7 a.m., she said.

Another woman said her mother, who was over 60 years old, was also arrested. “I don’t want to talk much because I don’t want to get in trouble,” she said, standing with a full bag of cooked rice and other food she hoped she could give to her mother.

The first man added, speaking to reporters: “I’m worried about you too.”

Chray Nim, 41, was arrested around 11 a.m. outside the police station, according to her daughter Reaksa Reasey. Reasey said she had come with her mother, and saw six officers drag her into the compound.

Nim was filming the police station’s gate as a citizen journalist, Reasey said.

Reasey was also questioned for an hour before being released, she said.

“They questioned where my mother came from and what she does. I told them that I don’t know because I’m just a student,” Reasey said. “I was very, very scared seeing her in handcuffs.”

In the afternoon, a guard at the police station also told VOD: “No pictures. If you continue to take them, I’ll get someone to take you.”

Nim was released in the evening. Nim told VOD after her release that she had only started filming, had not interviewed anyone yet, and had not broadcast live. She was questioned about who she worked for and whether she had sought permission to film. She would only say that she was a “community citizen journalist” and not where her reports were published.

“They asked whether I had asked permission from them or not and I told them that I go to take videos everywhere and I have never asked permission,” she said. “Anywhere people protest we go to cover it.”

“This is a threat and silences the freedoms and rights of independent citizen journalists,” Nim added.

Information Ministry broadcasting director Phos Sovan said he did not have clear information yet about Monday’s detention, and whether it was only for taking video.

“When we write a narrative, it can be too far from the truth, and sometimes the authorities think that it will incite or cause more violence … so they use their mechanism toward journalists who broadcast live,” Sovan said.

There were some challenges regarding citizen journalists not following ethics, he added. “The new group that we call citizen journalists has a lot of challenges,” Sovan said. “We have seen some challenges for online media occurring recently.”

Many small news outlets have appeared on Facebook in recent years — and several have faced trouble with the law over their video broadcasts.

Nim began as a land and women’s rights activist in 2012 after facing problems with her own land near the current Phnom Penh International Airport, according to the Cambodian Center for Human Rights and Transparency International.

Kandal officials have been heavy-handed in dealing with journalists covering the dispute. A VOD reporter was followed by two undercover police officers back to Phnom Penh after covering the story and another social media broadcaster was threatened and asked to stop covering the protest.

Nop Vy, executive director of the Cambodian Journalists Alliance, said Nim was a member of the association, though she had never done work for it.

The association would be offering her support as a member, he said.

“Citizens who can produce stories like articles and videos and photos are called citizen journalists. We have been working to build their capacity and ethics,” Vy added. “Some citizen journalists have good knowledge and can write stories. We encourage them and we can sign contracts with them.”

Many journalists in Cambodia were not formally trained, but have gained experience through working in newsrooms and with other journalists. “It is the same for citizen journalists. They are normal people, but they start working as journalists, then they learn and improve to be professional journalists,” he said.

Vy added that based on information he had, Nim had only been taking video. “I think this is part of people’s freedoms, including journalists’ freedoms,” he said, adding that authorities should respect those freedoms. “They have no weapons. They only have smartphones to interview and take photos and videos.”

Sokunthea Chhan, media development director at the Cambodian Center for Independent Media — VOD’s parent organization — said Nim was not a citizen journalist for CCIM. But CCIM would be providing a lawyer to support her, Chhan said.

CCIM, however, did have citizen journalists in the disputed airport area, and they were facing threats from police and local authorities, she said.

“CCIM supports CJs and professional journalists when they face challenges by providing legal support and safe houses if they need,” she said. “CJs are just gathering [information about] issues happening at the conflict area. The authorities should open the space for CJs and all journalists to exercise their rights freely.”

Kandal provincial police chief Chhoeun Sochet could not be reached. Pung Khiev Se, chairman of OCIC, which is developing the airport in a joint venture with the civil aviation authority, has not responded to questions.

The leader of Kazakhstan's unregistered El Tiregi (People's Pillar) party has been charged with violating the law on public gatherings following a protest rally in the capital, Nur-Sultan.

Party activists told RFE/RL that Nurzhan Altaev was briefly detained by police at the September 7 event and charged the next day.

They said at least six El Tiregi members were sentenced to jail terms of between seven and 15 days after being detained in a group of around 25 people when police dispersed the rally.

The demonstrators were demanding the government's resignation, protesting against forced COVID-19 vaccination, and demanding the government abandon plans to build a new nuclear plant.

Two leading members of the party, Union of the Soviet-Afghan War Veterans in Kazakhstan Chairman Murat Mukhametzhanov and lawyer Nursultan Ermakhanov, were detained the day before the rally and jailed for 10 and 15 days, respectively.

Altaev quit the ruling Nur-Otan party and announced the creation of El Tiregi in late November 2020, saying no genuine opposition political forces were represented in the current parliament.